Girls, Quidditch, and Other Things We Love
by xXxArcanusRosexXx
Summary: The Marauders: a Quidditch legend, Hogwarts' hottest guy, a prefect with a 'furry little problem', and a socially challenged rat. Mix in a fiery redhead and a troublemaking dark-haired beauty, and BAM! The most dramatic sixth year ever. JP/LE SB/OC RL/OC
1. Chapter One REVISED

_**EDIT: IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL READERS! PLEASE READ.**_

_**Many of you all returning readers may already know that I've been dealing with many plagiarism issues lately. Many others of you may have already read an older copy of this story under a different title and characters. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS THAT I HAVE NOT! NOT! NOT! COPIED THIS OFF ANY SITE AND AM WORKING VERY VERY FEVERISHLY TO GET RID ALL OF THE FALSE COPIES! For all of you who HAVE read a previous unedited edition of Girls, Quidditch, and Other Things We Love, here is a list of all the aliases and former titles I have ever used in my FanFiction life.**_

_**DXAnge-NoirXD - Swearing on Scorpio - Gaia Online Writing Arenas - Genevieve Dubois (Thank you to Chelsea for helping me find this one again! Fortunately, I have been able to remove this copy, as I still have access to this account! Virtual cookie and Hugs and Kisses to you, Chelsea!)**_

_**blue. skies (named after my former co-author as some of you may already know) - Our Time To Fly - Quizilla - Evelia Reinhardt **__**(Although you may still not believe me, I must thank alicelouise for letting me know about this copy - although I already knew about it, I could not remove it, as the email linked to this account has expired.)**_

_**demigodz. rule(oldest account I have) - All Your Love Is Revenge - Unknown Site? - Tanya Cavello **__**(Came across this by accident when I was clearing up my hard drive - I have no idea where this is posted, therefore cannot remove it.)**_

_**fantasia. dreamers - Dimmitunture (Latin for Forgiven) - Unposted - Natalia Lynx **__**(The very FIRST Girls, Quidditch, and Other Things We Love I've written - unposted, so it's no trouble.)**_

_**THANK YOU FOR STAYING WITH ME FOR THIS NOTICE - NEW READERS - ENJOY! FORMER READERS - well, you can enjoy the changes too. Love you all!**_

* * *

**A/N: **Yay! My first story's up! *Jumps around cheering* I've broken up this story into two parts - The first one's mainly an introductory section, while the second starts getting into the action. Pick wherever you want to start at, but I probably wouldn't want to skip the beginning. I know some of these character introductions are odd, but it'll all make since soon! Romance (Yes, romance) will come in later chapters. Enjoy!

**CHAPTER ONE:**

**Stickmen, Transfiguration, and Ways to Get Revenge**

*** * PART ONE * ***

"It was during the 13th century when renowned witch, Milsinnia Lapiana, claimed to discover a potion to stop aging. She was extremely secretive about her discovery, letting no one know except for her pet bird and faithful maid Louisa, who often accompanied her during her experiments. Little did she know that the bird was indeed, an Animagus, who was believed to have betrayed her discovery to her foes and..."

"Er... 'Y'?"

"Sorry, you lose," she snickered as she wrote the letter 'Y' on her parchment. The stickman on her parchment began frantically waving his arms in the air, his mouth bawling as the inky rope around his neck tightened. When the stool beneath him was kicked away, he struggled and then went limp. Bronze letters darkened onto the parchment like a stain that had just spilled on cloth. The letters spelled out the mysterious answer, 'Azoturia'.

"I never get used to it when the poor thing gets hung," said the dark haired girl, looking sadly at the drawing and sniffling. The hangman lay still, as its inky brains slowly began leaking out of its inky skull. "Oh Merlin, I hate it when they start doing that," she grimaced, disgusted, as she began crumpling up the parchment.

Sirius stared at the paper blankly. "What does..." he scratched his head, "…Ayzoo -"

"Azoturia. It's a sickness horses get when they got too much nitrogen in their hindquarters," the girl answered cheerily, stuffing the parchment into her bag. Sirius made a face.

"I don't even want to know how you know that word, Nat."

"Never said I was going to tell you, mate," she stuck out her tongue at him. The bell rang for lunch as Natalia and Sirius got their bags and slowly made their way to the Great Hall. Meanwhile, she had taken out her hangman parchment and was staring at the sickening scene where the stickman's inky guts had begun to spill out.

"Ugh... look at it drip! This is revolting! It makes me want to vomit!"

"I thought you hated looking at it," said Sirius, grinning, "Keep up!" His long, but slow strides still made a shorter person like Natalia have to jog to keep up.

"I've only seen it when its guts come out, not when it's all over. You can't say you don't find this fascinating! I mean, who knew stick people had guts? Ooh, other stickmen are coming to mop his guts away!" Natalia stared, entranced as more stickmen came into the scene. She had been so intense in the drawing, she hadn't noticed that Sirius had stopped walking. Inevitably, it caused Natalia to run into him. Before she could say anything, he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a wall, around fifty feet away from the Great Hall.

"_Fan girls_," he mouthed to her before she could snap at him. She peered to the doors of the Great Hall. Sure enough, there was a group of girls giggling to one another, each sporting a large vibrant orange pin attached to their robes. They were too busy flipping their hair and applying make-up to notice that they were blocking the door. Natalia glanced at them, shaking her head disapprovingly at their extremely short skirts and half-unbuttoned shirts.

"I thought you fancied their attention," she said, giving him a plaintive stare.

"Usually I don't mind, but I'm really not up to it today," Sirius shrugged, "I'm hungry and it's difficult to flirt when your stomach's growling. Not exactly a charming noise. Do something about, won't you Lynx?" he pouted.

"Annoying little prat, aren't you?" Natalia replied, but nevertheless, her eyes sparkled with mischief. "May I turn them into toads?" she whispered hopefully, twirling her wand with her fingers.

"Toads? Bit over the top, isn't it? I was going for a simple distraction. I'm not up for another detention so soon. My Marauder mates will frown if I'm not there to help with a prank, you see."

"Yeah, but Shara Robertson spread a nasty rumor about Lily the other day, and her lot replaced my hazelnut-and-vanilla shampoo with melted lipstick this morning," Natalia frowned.

Sirius shrugged. "Transfigure away, then," he said, "but I must say, toads are rather commonplace, aren't they? Very 15th century."

"Fine, toads with... chicken feet."

"Chicken feet? Dear girl, I think you need to see a psychiatrist."

"Sir, I already do," replied Natalia seriously. "He tells me to eat parchment when nobody's looking. Then he tells me to drink a pint of frog urine during Potions. Now he tells me I need to see a psychiatrist."

"You never did any of those things, though," said Sirius, looking disappointed.

"Of course I didn't, since when do I follow the doctor's orders?" she grinned, "Now can we get on with this?" she motioned to the group of fan girls.

"Chicken feet it is," Sirius agreed, rubbing his hands in glee, "But if you get caught, I'm not at all part of it. I'm only the sponsor, if you will."

"I never get caught."

"True. Now get on with it, I'm starving."

Natalia had a mischievous glint in her gray eyes as she aimed her wand at girls. A white stream of light came from her wand as she began muttering incoherent words. It hit one of the girls before the light swallowed them all in a fluorescent dome. Screaming could be heard, but it suddenly quieted as the light faded away, revealing no less than eight strange looking frogs with thin, chicken feet.

Sirius stared in amazement. "Are those..."

"Pig snouts? I thought it matched the sewer green skin of the toad," Natalia laughed. She pocketed her wand. "Come on, to the Great Hall we go!" Taking care not to step on the mutated hybrid toads, Sirius and Natalia made their way to the Great Hall. On the way, she picked up one of the orange pins. It read in flashing letters 'I Heart S.B.!' with a bright pink lipstick print on the side.

"Aww, how adorable, they _heart_ you Sirius!" Natalia cooed mockingly.

"Psychotic nutcases," Sirius muttered, incinerating the orange pin with his wand, "Orange is not my color."

They took their usual places in the Gryffindor table, with Natalia sitting directly across from Sirius. Shortly after, Lily came and sat down beside them, a faint glow in her eyes. "Have you heard that someone _finally _put a spell on Shara Robertson and her group, and turned them into strange looking toads with chicken feet and pig snouts? Brilliant transfiguration, if you ask me." She helped herself to a few carrot sticks and bread.

Natalia beamed, while Sirius began choking into his pumpkin juice. Lily looked at them strangely, but decided to ignore their peculiar behavior. A few minutes later, James, Remus and Peter came and sat down, all looking clearly excited.

"Fan girls. Toads. Chicken feet and pig snouts. Nat, I feel as though I should congratulate you," James held out his hand across the table, "Excellent work out there. A nine-point-five on the Marauder scale." Natalia took his hand and shook it firmly.

Lily spat out her food. James looked at the wasted food disdainfully.

"Merlin, Evans," he said scornfully, though the grin in his hazel eyes gave away his true thoughts, "We've all got our own food without you having to share yours, thank you very much."

"That was _you_?" Lily whispered furiously, her emerald eyes flashing as she ignored James, "You're going to get into detention and get all sorts of points taken off!"

"Didn't I just hear someone remarking that 'it was a brilliant piece of transfiguration'? Honestly Lily, lighten up, you know I was bound to do it sooner or later. And mind you, I put a nice Memory Charm on the dearies before I left," Natalia responded calmly, taking a large helping of roast potatoes.

"Fine, but if Professor McGonagall comes and take points off of Gryffindor, watch out," Lily warned darkly. She stood up and shoved the last of her carrot sticks into her mouth. "Oh right, Professor Slughorn wants to know who cast that spell on them. Thought it was amusing. He told me if I found out, I should bring them to today's meeting." Lily shook her head, as if she had never once thought the cross-breed transfiguration was brilliant.

"Slug Club? Ugh, no thanks Lily, just tell Professor Slughorn that I like to keep my... identity… a secret," Natalia grinned.

Lily chuckled. "All right," she turned to James, "come on 'Oh Gifted Quidditch Captain', Slughorn's waiting. Oh by the way, Nat, those Ravenclaw boys are staring at you again."

She scowled. "_Again? _Can't they just mind their own business and look at something else in a skirt. Seriously."

Sirius laughed and turned her head to face the Hufflepuffs. "Lookie at all the fan boys you have there, too. They're quite cute if you ask me, although they're nothing on me - "

" – as you are an insufferable, arrogant, pretty-boy git - "

" – whose best friend just happens to be the hottest item on the market - "

" – and just happens to have a _Fan Club _- "

"- and, and, and… Oh drat…"

Natalia grinned and pointed her finger at Sirius triumphantly. "Oh, you just got - "

Remus groaned loudly. "Not this again."

"Remember last time? How long did they take? One, two, three...four hours I think it was." Peter counted on the fingers of his left hand.

James winked at his friends before holding his arm out for Lily. She took it, to everyone's surprise and they walked to Slughorn's office together.

Sirius put down his fork. "Come on, might as well be early for Potions, for once," he slowly got up. Peter glanced at Sirius' treacle tart longingly, but followed him.

"Since when did you follow the rules?" Remus raised his eyebrows, "are you trying to redeem yourself in your sixth year?"

Natalia held back, her fork halfway into her mouth, as though contemplating whether or not to eat the roast potatoes.

Sirius clucked his tongue impatiently. "Hurry up! Drop your fork, you're getting fat anyway," however that was in no way the truth, and he knew it.

Natalia was slender and graceful looking, with black hair that smoothly ended just below her shoulders. Her skin was a golden tanned colour, and her rosy cheeks and soft pink lips accented her heart-shaped face. She had mischevious gray eyes and straight, white teeth that would always been shown in a smile. Her appearance made you think of something fragile, and delicate, but Natalia was everything but that. As Lily would say, she was a female 5'4 version of Sirius Black who was much slicker when it came to executing pranks.

"Sod off, I'm trying to eat!" She decided to eat the roast potatoes, and then began attacking her chicken. Sirius groaned and tried to grab her fork away, but Natalia smacked him hard on the head. Ten minutes later, she wiped her mouth daintily with her napkin, and stood up, smiling brightly at Sirius. By then, Remus and Peter had sat down again, eating and reading, but Sirius was still standing stubbornly, glaring daggers at her.

"Come on," He rolled his eyes.

When they arrived at Potions, they were docked five points off for lateness, much to Natalia's amusement. As they were brewing their potions, Sirius noticed someone staring at his group.

"Who's the boy who keeps staring?" Sirius whispered.

"Is it a Gryffindor, with dark hair and blue eyes?"

"Er... yeah," Sirius gave her a look, surprised at Natalia's rather accurate descriptions.

"Alexander Spinnet," said Natalia, excreting the juice out of her plant.

"Spinnet..." Sirius thought carefully, not noticing Natalia moving about, collecting ingredients, "…Isn't he in our house?"

"Yeah, didn't I say so…?"

"Yeah, he's the quiet one, isn't he?" Sirius watched as the boy scanned their group with her eyes, though he stirred without pause. He felt an unsettling feeling in his stomach when the boy named Alexander suddenly locked eyes with him. Blinking, he looked away and concentrated on his potion. "That's funny, why is he staring at us?" he asked.

"He's been trying to ask me out since fourth year," Natalia replied absentmindedly, not looking up from her potion.

Sirius sighed and went back to stirring his potion.

* * *

"Professor McGonagall was really impressed by my cross-breed transfiguration on Robertson and decided to give me extra credit!"

Natalia rushed into the common room face alight with happiness.

James chuckled. "Evans won't be too pleased to hear that."

"Yeah, nothing she hates more than my getting extra credit for breaking the rules," she grinned. Checking the common room's antique clock, she said, "well dearies, I must fly. 'Tis time for my detention. Say goodnight to Lily for me, I'll be back by ten,"

Natalia gave one last dramatic wave. She made her way past a small group of second years, blending in perfectly with their height. She exited the common room.

"Bloody nutcase, she is," Sirius muttered, shaking his head. Remus chuckled.

"Remember the first time we met her?" James asked.

Sirius groaned. "How could I forget?"

_"Boo!"_

_A young Sirius Black suddenly jumped in front of a young girl. Instead of a shriek of fear as he had hoped, the girl had quick reflexes, and before Sirius could react, she had her wand at him._

_"Boo," she said amusedly, tilting her head to one side. Her wand had not moved, and was far too close to Sirius' face for him to be comfortable._

_"G-g-get that away from me, it'll poke my eyes out!" said Sirius, half-scared at the wand and strange girl. But the wand remained fixed._

_"Hello, I'm Natalia Angelica Lynx," she said, holding out her left hand as though Sirius had not said anything. Sirius didn't understand what gibberish she was saying, still startled._

_"What?"_

_"Call me Nat, and if you don't, I'll poke your eyes out, or curse you once I learn more spells," the girl named Natalia replied cheerfully. Sirius stared at her, not knowing whether to take her seriously or not._

_"Nat, what are you doing?"_

_"I'm introducing myself, Lily, what does it look like?" she turned to face a red-headed girl._

_"Looks more like you're going to kill him," the red-headed girl laughed, pointing._

_"Hmm..." Natalia_

_pondered thoughtfully._

_"Sirius, what in the name of Merlin are you doing?" came another voice. A boy with messy black hair and glasses looked at him strangely. Immediately, the red headed girl shrieked and pointed an angry finger at him._

_"It's you!" she glared. The boy with glasses puffed out his chest._

_"Yes it's me, James Potter," he said proudly, but the red headed girl scowled at him._

_"You're the one who set that... that stink-thing in my compartment! It was you, I saw you snickering through the window!"_

_"Dungbomb, Lily," Natalia corrected her patiently. Lily gave a groan._

_"Right, Dungbomb. Darned wizard terms," she muttered to herself._

_"Muggle-born, eh?" Sirius remarked, Natalia's wand still in his face._

_"Why? Have something against Muggle-borns?" asked Natalia, her gray eyes narrowing. There was no smile on her face now. Sirius snorted._

_"No, but the rest of my family does," he muttered, partly to himself. He was surprised when Natalia suddenly lowered her wand, with a seemingly sympathetic look on her face. He was surprised at her sudden change of attitude._

_"Let's start fresh." She held out her hand. "Nat Lynx," she pronounced clearly. Sirius looked at it apprehensively, before taking her hand and shaking firmly._

_"Sirius Black."_

_"Well, we're going to be great friends, Sirius!" she slapped him hard in the back, laughing. Her laugh was sweet and pleasant, and Sirius groaned in pain and glared at her. She smiled amiably in return, and he felt his anger slip away._

"I met her after you lot did," Remus remarked.

James laughed. "It was an interesting introduction," he said.

_It was after the Sorting when Remus made his way for the first time to the Gryffindor common room. It was nerve-racking being at Hogwarts when he didn't think he could go, and he was excited. Yet he was worried that he wouldn't make any friends with his 'condition'. He was leafing through his new books, when he suddenly bumped into someone far larger than him. His books came crashing on top of him as he hit the floor._

_"My, my, new blood," the voice sneered._

_Remus looked up, seeing a tall, pale boy with blonde hair and a snide grin on his face. Beside him were another two boys, and a girl that looked like something smelly was under her nose. All three of them seemed to be in their seventh year._

_"Gryffindor," he glanced at Remus' crest, "such a waste."_

_The people behind him snickered. Remus tried to gather his books without too much attention, but the pale boy kicked his books away._

_"You look shaggy, get a shave, you great mutt," the boy sneered._

_Remus felt his face grow hot with shame; it was three days to the full moon._

_"Name's Lucius Malfoy," the boy said airily, stepping on Remus outstretched hand, gently applying pressure to it, "and she's Narcissa Black."_

_The girl stepped forward, looking scornfully down at Remus. Remus could feel tears filling up in his eyes as Lucius continued to step on his hand until almost all of his weight was on it. He thought the Lucius boy wasn't going to let up until he broke it._

_"Oi! You stop that!" a voice cried. A first-year girl came running towards them. She was a small person, not even reaching up to Lucius' chest._

_"Oh?" Remus felt Lucius lift his foot off of his hand and inwardly sighed in relief, "and who are you?"_

_"Natalia Lynx," the girl said, looking fierce, "now stop bothering him, you idiot toerag," she took out her wand. Lucius raised his eyebrow._

_"A Lynx?" he muttered to himself. He turned back to the girl, sneering at her Gryffindor crest, "And what are you going to do with your wand, poke me?" he let out a derisive laugh. The two boys and Narcissa joined in._

_The girl took this opportunity to jab Lucius' eye with her wand and whack the others with Remus' rather heavy books. As they were howling in pain, Natalia and Remus quickly gathered the rest of the books and ran to the common room._

_"Thanks," Remus gasped as they entered through the portrait._

_"No problem," she laughed. She was of small demeanor, very pretty, and so innocent-looking, Remus could have never guessed that she just took on four seventh-year Slytherins. Her voice was sweet, and reminded Remus of white birds._

_"I'm Remus Lupin," he said shyly, sticking out his hand. Natalia took it and gave it a firm shake._

_"Natalia Lynx," she replied, "See you around." She began making her way to the dorms, until she paused. "Erm... you wouldn't know when the next full moon was, would you?" she asked rather hesitantly._

_Remus felt his heart pounding in his throat, but tried to keep a calm composure. "No, I wouldn't," he said as firmly as he could. The girl nodded in understanding and gave him one final wave before disappearing up into the girls' dormitories. Remus bit his lip. What was all that about?_

_"Hey, want to join us?"_

_Remus turned around, seeing two boys with black hair waving at him, "It's no fun to play Exploding Snap with only two people," they grinned, holding up a deck of cards. Nodding slowly, he walked over to them, later learning that their names were James Potter and Sirius Black._

James nodded. "I'll be right back," he got up, "I'm going for some food."

"I remember when I first met Nat," Peter piped up, "it was during our first Transfiguration class. It was rather scary."

_"Everybody, we will be turning toothpicks into needles today, to test those who have been listening," said Professor McGonagall sternly._

_As she walked around and helped students, Peter anxiously fidgeted, flicking his wand in hopes of succeeding. However, the toothpick remained the same. Beside him, two girls were bickering with each other._

_"Oh come on Lily, you do it once for me, I'll learn better!" one of the girls said coaxingly, brushing back her black hair. Her toothpick was a dingy gray, but her friend's was a perfect needle. The other girl shook her head firmly._

_"No, if I do it once, you'll ask again! I'm not helping you, Nat, you have to do it yourself."_

_The girl sighed. She flicked her wand again, but her toothpick had not changed. She began muttering to herself, poking the gray toothpick idly with her wand. Suddenly a flash of light sprouted from her wand and hit the toothpick and sent it flying across the room. It hit Peter, with the pointed side, clean on the forehead. He fell off his chair in shock and lay on the floor, head bleeding._

_"Bloody Morgana, are you all right?" she ran towards him._

_Peter was still in shock, though tears were streaming down his face._

_"Great job, Lynx, you killed Peter!"_

_"Shut up Black! Peter, are you okay? Speak to me!" she begged, prodding him with her wand. His last clear image was Professor McGonagall standing over him with a wet towel in her hand. Then the cool sensation of the towel being plastered over his forehead, and then his eyes._

Oh, I remember that," said Sirius, "Nat got detention for carelessly using magic. And Peter was in the Hospital Wing for two hours. Madam Meshley went off her rocker and thought he was going to die, even though the toothpick didn't puncture his skull."

"I still have the scar!" Peter lifted up a few of his bangs to reveal a small, but seeable mark on his forehead.

Sirius laughed. "Madam Meshley went mad when she saw my arm broken in second year."

Remus chuckled, recalling the time Sirius broke his arm while sitting in a tree. Natalia had unexpectedly pushed him off, claiming that she thought he'd be able to catch himself.

"Detention is a bloody pain!"

Natalia came bursting into the conversation. Sirius, Remus and Peter snickered at her sudden outburst.

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

"That infestation of mice were test subjects for Charms," she said heatedly, "they wouldn't stop singing 'Magic, Magic" all detention!"

"So silence them, you _are_ a witch," Remus said.

"Flitwick is a madman. He put an Anti-Silencing Charm on them after the lesson. He must have wanted to use them to practice Silencing Charms with the class tomorrow. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize the mice would multiply after a week," replied Natalia grumpily.

"Did someone say 'Magic, Magic'?" James said, arms full of food, "I loved that song when I was little!

_"Magic, magic, here and there! Magic, magic's, everywhere! Charms and potions, with complex motions, streaks of light, and broomstick flights! Magic's everywhere! Magic, magic..._"

"Shut up!" Natalia blasted a Silencing Charm at James, "Bloody hell, there are twenty-five verses to that song! And that's not even including the chorus."

Sirius smirked and opened his mouth, but Natalia pointed her wand threateningly at him. "Don't even try."

Sirius closed his mouth, looking defeated. However, James was bouncing around the room, still silently singing the song.

"What's going on here?" Lily said from the stairs.

"Nat silenced James. Want an apple?" Sirius grabbed an apple from James' arms as the singing boy danced by. Lily shook her head slightly, still confused, while Sirius shrugged and bit into it.

"Why is James silenced?"

"He was singing," Sirius explained casually. Lily sighed.

"You lot shouldn't be using magic irresponsibly," Lily took out her wand. Natalia held up her hands to stop her.

"No, Lily, don't -"

"-MAGIC, MAGIC, EVERYWHERE! AND THAT'S ALL, ABOUT MAAAAA-GIC!" he bellowed the last high note. James slid on his knees, and threw all the food in the air. A confetti of apples, tarts, and pies flew into the air before splattering on the ground, and on Lily. Lily's face turned a deep, unappealing purple as she slowly wiped a bit of whipped cream off her face. The room was silent for a few moments, everyone seeming to absorb what had just happened. James got up from his knees, and looked at Lily thoughtfully.

"You know, Evans, you've got a bit of whipped cream and raspberry on your face," he observed.

"Bad move, mate," Natalia whispered from under her breath. The entire Gryffindor dormitory was suddenly woken up by a seething scream.

"_JAMES POTTER!_"

*** * PART TWO * ***

"Hmm, I dunno, mate, I'd say that's a real good look for you," Natalia said the next morning at breakfast. James was now clad in a brilliant purple handprint, right in the center of his right cheek.

He glared at her.

"Maybe you should get Madam Meshley to look at it," Peter suggested. Natalia choked on her toast.

"Are you joking? She'd throw a fit and think a dragon bit him!" she thought for a moment. "Perhaps I could go into the dorms and nick some makeup from Shara Robertson. Might hide the handprint."

"What? There is no bloody way I'm putting on-"

"Oh right, how _is_ Robertson?" Sirius asked, interrupting James. Natalia shrugged. Only a day ago, Natalia had singlehandedly turned Shara Robertson and her gang of prissy Gryffindor girls into mutated toads.

"She figured out it was me," she took a sip of orange juice, "and now she won't speak to me, not that it matters. I bet she's spreading nasty rumors about me as well, but I'm too ignorant to hear." She took out a bottle. Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" she retorted, "I'm pouring my orange juice into this bottle!"

"Why?" asked Peter, his mouth full of oatmeal. She put down her bottle.

"Because, I figured out that we only have pumpkin juice during dinner, and I thought, 'I'm going to have orange juice for dinner'. And here we are." She continued pouring, as Sirius shook his head at her. A flurry of dark red hair burst through the Great Halls as Lily nearly flew to the Gryffindor table, clothes slightly askew.

"I overslept," she explained hurriedly while piling on food, "and – Nat, what are you _doing_?" she stared at the bottle.

"I'm bottling up James' urine," Natalia said solemnly, screwing the cap on tight, "It's a very peculiar color this morning." She slipped the bottle in her robes.

When she caught Lily's horrified look, she sighed. "I'm joking, Lily. It's orange juice."

"Oh, right," but she gave her friend a weird look before she resumed her eating.

Just then, Remus came into the Great Hall.

"Good morning, Moony. Breakfast?" Sirius offered, holding up a plate of sausages and toast. Remus declined, and sat down beside Peter, who was now digesting a large plate of bacon, eggs, toast and sausages.

"Good morning, Remus," Lily looked up. She saw James' purple cheek.

"James! Your cheek!" she gasped. James avoided her gaze. Natalia quietly drank her milk, observing out of the corner of her eyes.

"I-I didn't think I hit you that hard," stammered Lily, flushing red, "I'm sorry James, does it hurt?"

"Just a bruise, it's alright," he muttered, still avoiding her eyes. Lily looked incredibly guilty. Soon, James abruptly left the Great Hall, scurrying to his first class. Lily, who had the same class as he did, followed behind less briskly as she usually did.

"Sirius, what do we do? James isn't talking to Lily, and Lily feels awful," Natalia said as she turned a textbook into an uncooked turkey.

"Prongs'll get over it," replied Sirius, "He's smitten with her. It's just his pride that's been hurt, is all." His textbook turned into a peacock.

Natalia laughed at his peacock, which was now angrily pecking at Sirius. "But the strange part is that Lily actually cares. I remember she's done this loads of times, and she's never been so guilty like now. Of course, she's never hit him that hard," she added thoughtfully, "Blimey, Sirius, watch that peacock!"

Before Sirius could react, Natalia had transfigured his angry peacock into a textbook again.

"Thanks, Nat. It nearly poked my bloody eyes out."

"Right, as I was saying," said Natalia, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes, "I suspect that James is finally growing on our Lily."

Sirius looked thoughtful. "Well, he has deflated his ego quite a bit since the end of fifth year," he admitted.

Natalia grinned. "I think it's time to take matters into our own hands."

Sirius looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, James is kind of sore at Lily right now, right?"

"... Right."

"And Lily likes James, though she'll never admit it. Right?"

"Well, we don't know for sure whether-"

"Right," Natalia butted in, sticking out her tongue at him, "so I'm thinking that we should -"

"Play matchmaker?"

"Well actually, I wasn't going to put it in that way, but I guess so," she said, turning her uncooked turkey into a sandwich.

"So we're going to set our best mates up?"

"Right you are, Rapunzel." Natalia bit into her sandwich.

"Who's - "

"Never mind," she muttered.

* * *

"Lily?" Natalia peeked into the dorms. Lily turned her head from her Potions essay.

"What?"

"Oh, erm... Professor McGonagall wants to talk to you in... classroom seventeen," Natalia said nonchalantly, shrugging. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Why?"

"I don't know, something about Prefect duties," replied Natalia quickly. "She wants to talk to you before dinner, in classroom - "

"I know, I know, class seventeen." Lily laughed slightly, "I hardly see why you seem so nervous, I should be the one nervous, shouldn't I?"

"Erm... Professor McGonagall said she'll have my head if I didn't tell you," she laughed hesitantly.

"Right, got it. Before dinner, classroom seventeen." And Natalia went downstairs, with a secret smile on her face.

* * *

"All right there, Prongs?" Sirius came on the Quidditch pitch. James saw him on the ground and got off his broom. James sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"I've been thinking, Padfoot," James began, "maybe it's not worth fancying Lily anymore. I mean, after all these years, I've never gotten so much as a 'hello' from her. Maybe it's time to move on."

"W-what? O-of course not," Sirius answered nervously. _He'd better not drop her after what we're doing_, he thought to himself.

"You stuttered," he pointed out accusingly, "you think I should move on. Be honest, Padfoot. I don't think Lily likes me at all," he said sadly, rubbing his bruised cheek tenderly.

Sirius patted him on the back. "Mate, if she's worth it, it doesn't matter. You have to keep trying."

"I've been trying for years, Sirius."

"Then try a bit longer, mate, you never know."

James looked at him suspiciously. "Are you hiding something, Padfoot?"

Sirius tried to laugh it off. "Of course not. Listen, I know what will make you feel better. Meet me at classroom seventeen before dinner, and we'll set up a good prank for the Slytherins, alright?"

"...All right."

"Great, see you later!" Sirius nearly sprinted to his next class to report back to Natalia, and before James could change his mind.

* * *

"So how did it go?" Natalia murmured to Sirius. They were supposed to be silent while handling the plants in Herbology, as the slightest sound could cause immense screeching for the entire period. However, the class was instructed to wear earmuffs just in case.

"Fine."

"Good. Then after this class, we have to start setting up. By the way, what excuse did you give him?"

"That we'd be planning to prank the Slytherins in that room to cheer him up."

"What? Cheer him up? He's still sore about that?" she whispered.

"A bit. He's thinking about giving up on Lily," said Sirius uneasily.

"WHAT?"

"Shut your mouth, Nat, before you -"

He was drowned out by the screeching of plants.

"Hurry up! They're coming!"

"I'm almost done, Sirius, just wait! The romantic setting has to be perfect!"

"No, someone's coming! Nat, get out!"

The door creaked open. Quickly, Sirius dragged Natalia underneath the table just as Natalia was finished putting on the last decoration.

"H-hello? Professor McGonagall?" rang Lily's wavering voice. Sirius and Natalia were safely hidden, being covered by the long tablecloth, but they were still nervous. If they were caught, it would have all been in vain.

"What the - why's there a table?" Lily muttered to herself. She carefully walked around the room, when the door creaked open again. She whipped around.

"Oh, thank goodness it's you Professor McGona - James? What are you doing here?"

"Sirius told me to come here. What are you doing here?"

"Nat said that Professor McGonagall..." Lily started, but realization dawned on her face. Gritting her teeth, she muttered, "I am going to murder her."

"Right, I guess I'll go then," James said, turning for the door.

"Oh no you don't," whispered Natalia as she pointed her wand at the door. James tugged at it.

"What's wrong?" asked Lily nervously.

"It's locked," James replied shortly. They stared at each other in uncomfortable silence.

"Issue Plan B," whispered Sirius importantly.

"What Plan B? We're still on Plan A!" Natalia whispered back.

"Fine, Number Two I don't know!"

"Shh!"

"Did you hear something?" James suddenly asked Lily. Lily looked at him slightly confused, shaking her head. "Probably imagined it," he mumbled to himself, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Give me the wand," Sirius snatched the wand away. Natalia grumbled as Sirius made the food appear on the table.

"Umm... there's food on the table, do you want to eat?" Lily said nervously.

"Are you sure Sirius and Nat didn't douse it in some sort of potion?" James laughed. Lily smiled, feeling slightly relaxed.

"We'll just have to get them back later, won't we then?" They laughed as they took their seats.

"How are we going to get them back?"

"Feed them to a Hippogriff?"

"James!"

"Fine, fine," he said as he shoved a forkful of potatoes into his mouth, "what about a good hex?"

"Damn it, they've having a good time at our expense," Natalia whispered, "they're going to kill us. What's more, we're missing dinner!"

"Give me the orange juice."

"What? Why?"

"It's our dinner, now give it." Natalia gave a small sigh as she took it out. She handed it to Sirius who drank half and gave the rest to her. As she was drinking, she felt a slight kick from her leg. Screwing on the lid quickly, she pulled Sirius to the other side, covering his mouth from protests.

She saw Lily discreetly look underneath the table, wondering what she had kicked. When Lily saw nothing, she returned to the laughing conversation with James.

"Good thing we gave them a large table," Natalia muttered to Sirius. She realized how close she was to Sirius and immediately jumped away, wiping her robes as though he held some sort of disease. Sirius caught the scent of her hair, and the warmth of her body faded as she jerked away. He rolled his eyes as she mouthed 'cooties' to him.

"Brilliant thinking James!"

"What? What did they say?" Natalia whispered frantically. Sirius also looked slightly worried.

"I have no idea."

"Bugger it," she mumbled. Her stomach was gnawing, as she listened to the clinking of silverware and laughter above her.

_Lily, you'd better thank me for this later_, she thought to herself.

"Sirius, I just realized, where would Remus and Peter know where we are?"

"I told them about our plan, they won't come finding us," Sirius replied. Natalia nodded as she heard a final clink of the forks and knives as both people were finished their meals.

"_Evanesco!_" Sirius whispered, and the food disappeared. Immediately, Natalia slapped him on the upside of his head.

"What did you do that for? We could have eaten that! Bring it back!" she whispered furiously.

"I transferred it to the school's trash storage!" She made a face and attempted to strangle Sirius. He put his fingers to his lips as he pointed up and Natalia sat still.

"James, I'm really, really sorry about your cheek," Lily was apologizing.

"It's nothing," James muttered.

"Yes it is! Let me look at it better," she walked over to James' and examined his face before he could turn away. She traced her fingertips along the bruise, from the end of his cheek to the beginning of his eye. Lily bit her lip.

"Come on, James," she grabbed his hand and led him to a couch that was conveniently resting in front of a fireplace. She conjured up an ice bag and began to gently dab it at James' cheek. Behind her, the elegant hearth was crackling merrily, bouncing its light onto the pleasant scene.

James was in a daze. Never before would he have dreamed that Lily Evans, the Lily Evans, to be kneeling before him, tending to his bruise.

_Even if she's the one who caused it..._

Next, Lily had a sort of yellow paste where she poured some on a cloth and began to apply to the bruised parts of James' cheek. Gradually, the purple began to fade away, leaving James' cheek healthy, but his eyes still dazed.

Lily stood up, a moment too soon in James' eyes.

"There, you're finished," she used her wand to make the ice bag and potion disappear.

James regained his composure and stood up as well. "Thanks, Evans."

"Call me 'Lily', James," Lily replied.

James smiled. "Thanks, _Lily_."

They stared at each other in silence.

Lily cleared her throat. "Well," she said, "Maybe it's time to go." She walked over to the door, which had mysteriously unlocked.

"Bye," Lily looked uneasy for a second, before walking back to James and giving him a swift kiss on his previously bruised cheek. She exited the classroom quickly, with bright red cheeks and a small smile on her face.

James rubbed his hand over where Lily had kissed him, before bursting into a grin.

"Me, James Potter, give up? Never," he declared to the, supposedly, empty room.

Natalia bit back a snort. Sirius gave her a thumbs-up.

"Consider our mission a success," he mouthed as James whooped in the air. She nodded, fist stuffed in her mouth, her face red.


	2. Chapter Two

**A/N: **Thanks to everyone who read Chapter One! You have no idea how much it means to me, you guys! Luv you all! Enjoy Chapter Two!

**CHAPTER TWO:**

**Odd Professors, Drunk Monkeys, and Other Things I See Every Day**

"Hand me that book, would you?"

Sirius smirked at her as he easily reached up and grabbed the book from the top shelf. He handed it to Natalia in a patronizingly superior air. Natalia rolled her eyes as she snatched the book from his hands and plopped down on the floor. Sirius crouched down beside her.

"An unpretentious thank-you would suffice, you know," he stated, looking disdainfully down at her.

"I don't like thanking people who use big words to degrade other people," she stuck out her tongue. They were in the more secluded part of the library, which was right beside the Restricted Section. It was Natalia's favorite part of the library because it was so out-of-the-way.

"What are you looking for, anyhow?" asked Sirius curiously. He had tagged along with her after he'd given Peter the slip. Wormtail was a great mate and all, but he really needed to quit following him like a lost puppy.

"A book on Elfish script," she furrowed her eyebrows as she flipped through the pages. Sirius raised his eyebrows but said nothing, glancing absentmindedly about. Shelves and shelves of books lay in the library, the room was silent, except for the occasional page crinkling from Natalia. Sirius bet that if he made a loud noise, Madam Pince would be at him in an instant.

"Perfect," Natalia got up and slammed the book shut. A loud _bang_ echoed through the library. Almost immediately, Madam Pince was glaring down at her, her eyes boring into Natalia's, confirming Sirius' theory.

"Quiet in the library," she screeched, not bothering to lower own her voice. Pince's expression was enough to convince Muggle children of the existence of the bogeyman.

Natalia held her book up. "I'd like to borrow this," she answered innocently, giving Madam Pince an angelic smile. Madam Pince eyed her warily as she and Natalia made their way to the front desk, with Sirius walking behind them, still looking curiously around the library.

"We could sneak through this way..."

"No way, she'll see us!"

"How are we going to hide it?"

"Could we go in our forms..."

"That's complete rubbish, Wormtail, if we get caught, we'll be expelled for sure!"

"What are you boys going on about?" Natalia entered the common room, looking at the four boys sitting in a lonely corner, crowding over a piece of paper.3

"Nothing," Sirius said quickly, conveniently covering the mysterious piece of paper when he turned around. James mumbled a spell under his breath and the parchment disappeared.

"Absolutely nothing at all," Remus added. He summoned his book and began to read as though absorbed into it. Peter stood there, his mouth in an 'O' shape and his eyes wide, as though he had been caught doing something bad.

Natalia raised her eyebrows suspiciously. Putting her hands on her hips, she said, "You know I'm going to find out. One way or another, I _will_ discover what you're doing!" and she dramatically marched off into the dorms.

Peter glanced at his friends worriedly. "You think she will?"

"Fat chance, I know how Nat is about privacy," Sirius said confidently. James nodded his head in agreement.

"We'll plan some other time, right now -" he grinned at Sirius. Sirius grinned back and glanced at his watch.

"Any second now... in five, four, three, two, one..."

Natalia suddenly stood in front of them, her face steaming. In her hands was a box of what seemed to be Honeydukes chocolates.

"You have a wonderful habit of suddenly appearing in front of people, you know that?" Sirius said, grinning.

"What... is in this box?" she said angrily, but Sirius could see her lips slightly twitching.

"You shouldn't eat things that aren't yours," said Remus, smiling pleasantly.

"It was addressed to me!" Natalia snapped, showing them a piece of parchment on the box. Coincidentally enough, it was labeled 'For Nat.'

"And you just _eat_ it?" gasped Sirius, looking shocked, "Aren't you afraid that some lovestruck chap's spiked it with love potion, perhaps? Very likely, in your case."

"What the bloody hell is in this damned chocolate?" came a most eloquent retort.

"Oh you know..." James trailed off, smirking.

"A bit of moldy toadstools,"

"Some spider legs,"

"Oh, and lots and _lots_ of," Peter added.

"Frog urine," came Sirius' bark-like laugh.

"All put together in a lovely chocolate-covered delight," Remus chuckled. He and the others toppled over each other, laughing and hooting. Natalia stood, debating whether to stay mad, or to join in their laughter. Before she could decide, Lily came into the common room.

"What is going on here?" she asked, staring at the group of boys, who were still laughing.

Natalia shrugged, and then grinned, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Here, Lily," she spoke loudly, "have a chocolate. It's ace," she smirked as the boys suddenly stopped their laughing and stared. A distinguished red flush came onto James' cheeks.

Lily gave Natalia an odd look, but took the chocolate, nonetheless. She put the chocolate into her mouth and chewed slowly, before spitting it out, her face turning slightly green.

"God, what's in this?" she spat, gagging.

"Why don't you ask them?" Natalia replied quickly, before running up the dorms to stifle her laughs. Lily turned to all the boys, who shared matching innocent faces.

She held up the box of chocolates. "What is this?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, you know..."

"A bit of this, a bit of that..."

"Mix 'em together..."

"All in a chocolate-covered delight."

* * *

"Quidditch tryouts next Saturday!"

James came bursting into breakfast. He turned to Natalia. "Be there."

"What day is that, the seventeenth of September?" Natalia glanced at her watch, "I don't know Potter, maybe I should back out of Quidditch this year," she sighed.

James' hazel eyes darkened. His glare became so fierce that Natalia held up her hands.

"I was joking! Honestly," she said, sticking out her tongue.

James let out a huge sigh, but his face remained stern. "Good. You're the best Seeker we have. Seven o'clock, Quidditch pitch," and he ran off to tell the previous teammates from last year.

"Merlin. Make a man a Quidditch captain, and all forms of humor goes out the window," Natalia shook her head as she spooned some porridge.

Remus laughed. "Nothing comes between Prongs and his Quidditch," he said.

"He's almost as bad as that Patrick Wood, the one who graduated when I was in third year," she grumbled.

"Oh, did you hear? He and Daisy McCoy are married," Lily said, sipping her coffee. Natalia spat out her porridge.

"What? Daisy 'Sign-the-Petition-to-stop-Quidditch' McCoy? Daisy hates Quidditch, almost as much as Lily hates James!" she gave a side glance at Lily.

Lily turned slightly pink.

"Yeah well, they got married two years after they graduated from Hogwarts. Think they've got a son as well," Sirius said as he snickered at Natalia's analogy.

"Crazy world," Natalia muttered, wiping the spilt porridge with her napkin.

* * *

"It's part of the dare, now go!" Sirius nudged her. Natalia pouted. James pushed her into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Inside, the new teacher, Professor Deboale, was starting to take attendance.

"Barclay, Maureen?" a girl raised her hand. Professor Deboale nodded at her, then peered down at the list.

"Erm... Longstocking, Pippi?" he said unsurely.

Natalia waved her arms frantically in the air. "Oh, me! I'm here, I'm here! It's me, I'm Pippi!" she squealed, bouncing up and down. Deboale stared at her, adjusting his glasses.

"Erm... carrying on then..."

"Great name, Moony," Sirius whispered as he spied from behind the door.

"I give credit to Astrid Lindgren," Remus grinned. James put a finger to his lips, motioning them to listen.

"Erm, as you know, I am the new Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts," the thin teacher said nervously, leaning on his desk, "and we have a lot to cover in this second-year class so..." a hand rose up as he spoke.

"Yes, erm... Miss Longstocking?"

"When will we get to the part where we get to fight live Hungarian Horntails?" Natalia asked excitedly, flicking back her blond (Oh, the wonders of Polyjuice Potion) pigtails.

Professor Deboale cleared his throat; a few students snickered.

"Actually, we will not be doing that, but, this year, we will be covering," - he took out his lesson plan - "erm, different magical creatures, and er, I don't think we will be dueling dragons, not even in N.E.W.T.s," he cleared his throat again.

Natalia raised her hand up again.

"Then will we start breeding centaurs in the classroom?"

"Erm, centaurs are actually independent creatures and ..."

"What are you boys doing?" Lily had her arms crossed. The boys looked at her, looking slightly guilty. James led her over, pointing his finger at a pigtailed girl who wouldn't stop bombarding strange questions at the new professor.

"Is this how you spend your free periods?" reproved Lily, scowling, "that's really cruel, considering he's new. Honestly, how could you be so inconsiderate?" but she made no move to get up as Natalia raised her hand again.

"Professor Deboale, is it true that Dumbledore's beard is actually detachable?"

The look on Professor Deboale's face was absolutely priceless.

* * *

Natalia waved her hand in front of his face.

"Siiiirius! Are you there?"

"What?" Sirius mumbled, his gray eyes glazing over. He had dozed off in Ancient Runes, blinking his eyes.

"Oi!" Natalia slapped him on the back. Sirius snapped back up, looking attentive. "We're supposed to be translating these runes!"

She showed him the tablet and the blank parchment. Sirius pushed his thoughts out of his head and looked at the tablet critically.

"Dunno, just make something up."

"Looks more like Ancient Egyptian scribes wrote it," Natalia said, ignoring Sirius' unhelpful suggestion. A few minutes later, Natalia had deciphered the entire tablet by herself, while Sirius sat there, looking elegantly bored. He had taken out a piece of old parchment and was looking at it blankly.

"I'm done," Natalia said, putting down her quill, "and what is that?" she pointed at the parchment Sirius was holding.

"Something I got back in fifth year," he said casually, yet holding the paper up so she couldn't clearly see it.

_A parchment, rolled up and bound neatly, lay in the centre of Sirius' pillow. Sirius picked it up and unrolled it, reading its contents carefully. Written on the parchment in beautiful, curvy writing, were the very instructions that he and James had been searching for two years: How to become an Animagus, The instructions were written basically and straight-forward, and was the prime reason of how James, Peter, and Sirius were able to become Animigi. There was no evidence of who had given him the parchment, or of how they found out what James and Sirius were doing, except for one clue. The writer had messily scribbled the initials, 'N.L.'_

Natalia reached over him and grabbed the parchment away from him.

"Ah, this," she said, grinning as she recognized her own writing. "I remember when you guys stole that from me."

Sirius smiled sheepishly.

"How on earth did you do it, I don't know," Natalia remarked, shaking her head affectionately. "When's the next full moon anyway?"

"Next Tuesday. You'll be sitting on my head again, Feather?"

Natalia whacked him on the head with the rolled up parchment before handing it back to him. "You're impossible to please, Padfoot."

* * *

"Potions is a bloody pain in the arse," Natalia grumbled the next day at lunch.

Behind her, Sirius, Remus and Peter were busy stifling laughs.

"Well, if you didn't send Slughorn to the hospital last week with that exploding potion," Lily scolded, "he'd probably be a bit nicer to you."

"Oh no, I'm fine with Slughorn," Natalia replied, downing a goblet of pumpkin juice, "he's still in St. Mungo's. We had a substitute, Professor Weeny," she griped.

"Bit of a second-year insult, isn't it?" James laughed.

"No, that's the professor's name. Weeny," Sirius said through choked laughs.

Natalia sighed. "Wish I knew that beforehand," she mused.

"Why, what happened?"

"Nat started rolling over laughing, as he made his introductions," Remus smiled.

"I thought he was joking!" Natalia protested, "and anyway, you could have _told_ me that it was his real name!"

"We didn't want to ruin our fun," Sirius smirked.

Lily raised her eyebrow. "Is that all that happened?"

Sirius chuckled. " 'Course not. After that, Professor Weeny didn't really take a liking to Feather, to our great surprise, and hounded her all class. Because of that, she slipped in a couple of wrong ingredients and set Professor Weeny's goatee on fire."

Peter choked on his black pudding, laughing at the memory. Natalia slapped him on the back a couple of times, trying to force it out.

"He took off twenty points and gave her detention for 'cheek'," Remus continued on.

"There he is!" Natalia pointed him out. He was sitting at the High Table, near the Slytherin table. Natalia scanned him, noticing that he actually looked better without his goatee. He caught her eye and glared at her. She waved cheerfully back.

"Oi, who's that new girl sitting at the Slytherin table? I've never seen her before," James asked, pointing.

Sitting at the Slytherin table, was a strange girl with wavy blonde locks and a pointed nose. She was quite pretty, but the snobbish look of her face gave Natalia the impression that she might be a pureblood, and proud of it. The strange girl noticed the Gryffindors staring at her curiously, so she got up from her seat and walked up to them confidently.

"Hello," she said coolly, "if you didn't know, staring is quite rude."

"My name's James Potter," he replied, sticking out his hand, "are you new here?" he asked, noticing that there was no crest on her robes.

The girl crossed her arms, snubbing James' handshake. "Azoturia Lorenzo. I've just transferred." At the sound of her name, Natalia snorted into her rice pudding, creating a nice mess on the table.

The girl whipped her head to Natalia's direction. "Something funny about my name?" she demanded.

Natalia nodded boldly, to Lily's horror, and began laughing, unable to speak.

The girl gave her a piercing stare, one that Natalia could not return, as she was too busy laughing. Sirius bit back a smile, because only he knew why she was laughing.

"My name's Lily Evans," Lily said, nodding at her, giving only a half apologetic look. Natalia was being somewhat impolite, but after all, the girl also seemed slightly rude.

The girl sneered. "So this is 'Mudblood-most-likely-to-succeed'," she said coldly, "Filthy Mudbloods, its a wonder how you're all still at Hogwarts."

She turned to James, Remus, Peter, Natalia and Sirius, "and I suppose these must be the rest of the Muggle-loving -"

"_Petrificus Totalus._"

Azoturia's body went suddenly rigid, as she clattered noisily on the floor. Natalia calmly went back to her eating.

"We always think that we have to listen people's insults, but we actually don't," she said, "A good spell will just shut them up."

* * *

"Where are we going?"

"Common room," answered Natalia, avoiding the trick step on the staircase, "I want to get my broom and practice before tryouts."

"What, that poor excuse for a - oof!"

She laughed, as Sirius lay stuck in the trick step. His face was red and not very attractive.

"Yes, that poor excuse for a broom," she said as she pulled Sirius up, "you're lucky none of your fan girls saw you, or they'd be shocked for life."

"Speak of the devil," Sirius muttered as he nodded his head towards the Fat Lady portrait. A group of girls were standing, gossiping vibrantly and doing their makeup. The leader of them was Shara Robertson.

Shara shared a dorm with Natalia and Lily, but they were far from friends. She and her group of friends would do all things imaginable to aggravate them, which Natalia only saw as a challenge. Barclay had long brown, luxurious curls and hazel eyes that were often covered with eye shadow and mascara, with lips that were smothered in lipstick or lip gloss. She was quite tall, though not as tall as Sirius, reaching at about five foot and ten inches.

"You know, Robertson would be quite pretty, if she'd get rid of the makeup, button her shirt, lengthen her skirt, stopped acting so snotty and obsessed and overall behaved less like a drunk monkey," Natalia said, ticking the points off with her fingers.

"You know, maybe they aren't that bad, I mean, they haven't been bothering you all that..."

"Yesterday I earned six Galleons from auctioning off one of your pairs of pink boxer shorts I found in your room," Natalia smirked at Sirius revolted expression.

"Well," Sirius recovered with a smug look, "Seems as though everyone wants a piece of Sirius Black. But as much as the attention is appreciated, I do not wear pink boxer shorts." Sirius proceeded to go down the stairs, but Natalia held him back.

"My broom!" she said, "You go over there and do your... whatever, and I'll be back," she told him as she nearly dragged him across the floor.

Sirius sighed. "Only for you, Feather," he muttered, before combing back a few loose dark locks and rolling his eyes. He sauntered towards the portrait confidently, quickly gaining the attention of the girls. He winked at them and they broke out in fits of giggles. Among them seemed to be the leader, with her large bottom and bosom.

"Eeek! It's Sirius Black!" Robertson squealed, throwing herself onto the boy.

However, she wasn't the lightest of people, in contrast to Natalia, and Sirius had to struggle to keep himself from falling over.

"Hullo - Shara," Sirius grunted, before throwing her off of him. But Robertson didn't seem upset as she jumped up and kissed Sirius right smack on the lips.

At first Sirius tried to struggle, his eyes wide open with disgust and shock, but as her brown hair seemed to gracefully flow, cradling her face, he slowly gave in. All the fangirls were screaming at the two snogging; mostly of glee and with a hint of jealousy.

"Bit eager, aren't we there?" Natalia suddenly said, looking disgusted, yet amused. Sirius could have sworn she even sounded angry. Sirius immediately snapped to his senses and thrust Shara off of him. Natalia raised an eyebrow at him, which meant that they would be talking about this later.

Offended, Robertson smoothed down her brown hair and straightened her skirt before she headed down to the sixth floor, but not before she and her girls all glared at Natalia. One girl with a long blonde mane, however, gave her a shy thumbs-up before she also scurried away

Natalia tapped her foot on the ground, her arms crossed.

"What was that all about?"

"I... really have no idea," Sirius stammered, "she came onto me, and I don't know."

"Well, Mister Drunk Monkey," Natalia patted his head, "if you feel deprived of action, many girls would help you with your needs. Shara Robertson is bordering on losing your integrity, though," she smirked as she whisked off.

Sirius watched her, shaking his head from confusion, and followed her, resulting in a race between man and broom, laughing as he chased his friend.

**Chapter End Notes: **Well! Another Chapter gone and passed (*sigh*). I know a lot of these introductions are odd but they'll become clear later. Romance (*squeals*) comes in later chapters. I thrive on reviews.

Luv,

ArcanusRose


	3. Chapter Three

**A/N: **Well! Here's my third chapter! This is part of my birthday present for my friend Lawrence (HI, LAWRENCE). We have a nice little kiss in this chapter, so enjoy!

**CHAPTER THREE:**

**Donkeys and Clowns**

*** * PART ONE * ***

"You still don't have a date for Hogsmeade?"

"Er... no..."

"Mm, I don't know, tomorrow's Hogsmeade, and -"

"Oh, sod off, Nat," and Sirius walked into the Great Hall. Girls suddenly appeared in front of him, blushing and smiling flirtatiously.

"Hi Sirius -"

"Tomorrow's Hogsmeade -"

"Have a date?"

"I mean if you want -"

The mound of girls became greater and greater as Sirius soon lost sight of Natalia. Suddenly he caught a mound of black hair and he grabbed her shoulder. A plan stirred in his mind as he spoke loudly.

"Sorry girls, I'm going to Hogsmeade with Nat?" he said desperately.

"I'd love to!" said Natalia cheerfully, covering up for him smoothly. The throng of girls let out a disappointed sigh, and a couple of boys at the desks shot Sirius death glares as the pair left for the Great Hall.

* * *

What? Sirius is going with Nat?" James blurted, "when did this happen?"

Lily looked especially shocked. She glanced worriedly at Natalia for an explanation.

"Work of Fate," Natalia smiled as Sirius grumbled into his dinner, "Sirius needed an excuse to get out of that crowd."

She grinned at Lily, who relaxed and smiled back. Remus raised his eyebrows but didn't comment on the girls' peculiar behavior. Twenty minutes later, Natalia suddenly hit Sirius hard in the arm.

"What was that for?" he yelled, rubbing his arm.

"You were going to weasel out of getting asked a date by telling people you were going with me!" Natalia snapped, "Since when was this planned?"

"Did you see the girls out there? They were going to bloody force me to go with them!"

"Does it look like I bloomin' give a -"

"Lover's fight," Peter mumbled.

"After all my note-taking for you, this is what I get?"

"I guess it is!"

"Stop your bloody bickering!" James roared, "It's hard enough eating this horrible casserole Mum gave me!"

Natalia and Sirius quieted, but continued to glare at each other.

"I never knew you could send food through long-distance owl post," remarked Remus mildly, glancing at the sickly green dish. James groaned.

"You can't," he said as he tossed it onto a plate of roast beef and grabbed a couple of Cornish pasties.

"Lily?"

"I'm here, Nat."

Natalia hurried over to the bed. "What are you doing? You're supposed to meet James at ten! And it's..." she looked at her watch, "nine-forty."

"It's a crisis, Nat, a crisis!" Lily suddenly cried. Natalia looked extremely worried.

"What happened?" she asked, furrowing her brows. Lily bit her lip.

"I... I..." she began.

* * *

"Lily Evans! What kind of bloody crisis is this?" Natalia shouted. In her right hand, she held a light green blouse. In the other, she held a blue shirt with long sleeves and flower design.

"I don't know which one to choose!" Lily wailed. In _her_ hands, she held three pairs of different looking shoes.

Natalia rolled her eyes. She nearly tore open Lily's trunk of clothes and randomly through out clothes.

"Here, put on these," she said shortly, shoving the pile of clothing into Lily's arms and dragging her into the bathroom, "Get dressed in five minutes."

She walked out, thoroughly steamed, but she couldn't help but feel the _slightest_ amused.

In five minutes, Lily stepped out into the dormitories. Natalia barely gave her a glance and clapped her hands.

"Bravo, let's go," she grabbed her again.

"Are you sure I look all right?" she whispered worriedly, tugging at her clothes.

"Yes, you look wonderful, Lily," Natalia replied exasperated, "but I didn't know you became such a _Robertson_."

Lily snatched her hand back and stopped; looking as though it was the worst insult she had ever been given.

"I am _not_ Shara Robertson," she retorted angrily. Natalia chuckled and patted her head.

"'Course you aren't. I'm just confused as to why you're so worried about Hogsmeade. It's _just_ Potter, you know," she said mischievously. Lily tried to look dignified.

"It's an outing," she explained a-matter-of-factly. "It's only polite to spend some time on your appearance."

"If you say so, Lil," Natalia laughed to herself.

When they reached the front entrance, Lily suddenly went into a nervous frenzy, tugging at her clothes and brushing her hair. She nearly used her wand to summon her makeup, until Natalia slapped her.

"And be glad there's no bruise on your cheek," Natalia had said. Lily was still self-conscious, so with a yielding sigh, she conjured up a mirror for Lily to see for herself.

Lily stared. There she was, clad in a simple brown top, which she never wore because she thought it was too brown. But, it seemed to fit perfectly with a faint purple skirt with a floral design that flounced at the bottom. She wore no socks, but practical, black sandals that gave her a slight elevation off the ground. Her dark red hair framed her face, falling gracefully below her shoulders. The makeup would've been too much, she thought to herself, satisfied with her appearance.

"Nat, thanks." She smiled warmly, her green eyes twinkling happily. Natalia blew at her nails.

"I have bloody good fashion sense, if I do say so myself." She grinned, "Come on, your date awaits!"

She swung open the front doors dramatically.

"Lily, you look fantastic!" James ran over, grinning at the red-headed girl. Lily blushed slightly, but mouthed an innocent 'what?' when Natalia raised her eyebrow, cocking her head to one side.

"Should we go line up?" James motioned to the queue line, where Filch was signing out the students. Lily nodded her head.

"Have fun with Prince Charming," Natalia whispered so that only Lily could hear. Lily gaped at her, but took the hand that James' offered her and began walking out of the grounds. Natalia winked, and disappeared back into the Hogwarts grounds, bumping into an already changed Sirius.

"Ready to go?" he asked, before looking at Natalia's changed shirt and skirt. "Okay, bad question. You were probably ready a long time ago."

"Unlike a certain Miss Evans," she remarked amusedly.

Sirius grinned, ignoring the envious looks they got from the other people around them.

* * *

"You - you aren't still sore about yesterday?" Sirius asked in amazement the next day at breakfast. Natalia blinked.

"What should I be sore about?" she asked, then narrowed her eyes, "Were you acting like a drunk monkey again?"

"What? No!" Sirius held up his hands, "I didn't! I thought you'd still be sore about me asking you out," he said, looking slightly embarrassed about his statement.

Natalia snorted.

"Nah," she stuck out her tongue and smiled, "You're too adorable to be mad at for long." She playfully pinched his cheek.

"I am not adorable!" Sirius said in protest, his words somewhat slurred from Natalia still pinching his cheek.

"Aww, you're as adorable as a teddy bear!" She exclaimed, pinching his cheek even harder.

"I am macho and manly!" Sirius shouted randomly, his cheek starting to hurt.

Natalia stared at him before she burst out laughing, letting go of his cheek.

"That's got to be -"

(_Hahahahahahaha_)

"the worst comeback -"

(_Hahahahahahahaha haha hahahahaha_)

"EVER!"

She wiped her eyes, cheeks red from laughing.

"I can always count on you for a laugh," she patted him on the back.

"More like ridiculing laugh," he muttered, rubbing his cheek.

"Fine, what can I do to make it up to you?" She crossed her arms, still grinning.

He pretended to think, scrunching up his face. Suddenly he came up with a devious thought.

"You promise to do anything?" he said innocently.

"Sure..." she said, looking at him suspiciously.

"Instead of walking, you have travel in handstands for the entire day," he said triumphantly, remembering the time Natalia had done a handstand in fourth year.

"What? I can't do that! I'll die of the blood going to my head!" she protested, "I'd - I'd rather kiss a donkey!"

"Then do it, kiss a donkey." He smirked, watching Natalia amusedly. "You don't have to travel in handstands if you kiss a donkey. On the lips," he added.

"Fine," Natalia muttered, before she got a gleam in her eyes. She walked over to Sirius and planted a sudden, light kiss on his lips, despite the furious girls (and boys) watching. She let go quickly, smirking at Sirius' shocked expression.

"I thought I said a donkey," said Sirius slowly, the shock still in his eyes.

"Well, Sirius, you are quite an ass sometimes," she snickered as she pushed him out the portrait hole, "Have a nice day!" The Fat Lady closed in his face.

Sirius stood, staring at the Fat Lady, trying to comprehend what just happened. It took him a while to realize that he had just been insulted when Natalia had kissed him. For some reason, he wasn't too upset with her.

*** * PART TWO * ***

"Bloody hell, Nat! My nose is purple!" Sirius bellowed the next morning. Natalia looked at him, amused, while sipping a hot mug of milk.

"I was trying to look at Mars, Sirius," she said simply. "Mars was in the opposite direction!"

"That was when I realized that you couldn't see the sun during the night," Natalia smiled cheekily at him. Sirius glared at her, rubbing his nose tenderly.

"If you want, you could go to Madam Pomfrey," Lily pointed out as she read her usual copy of _Transfiguration Today_, "She'd have it fixed for you."

"It's really swelling up, mate," James added, "Nat slammed that telescope pretty hard."

"Tripping me was bad enough!" Sirius complained, "but honestly, the telescope!" Natalia rolled her eyes patronizingly as she set her mug down and grabbed Sirius by the arm.

"Come on, to Madam Pomfrey we go," she said, trying to sound annoyed to suppress her laughter. Along the way, many people holding onto newspapers were pointing and whispering at what seemed to be Natalia and Sirius. Thinking that they were whispering at his nose, Sirius growled at her.

"See? They're all talking about my bruise!"

"Be quiet, it'll be gone in five minutes," she told him, and looked at the people. They immediately turned away and pretended to be chatting to their friends, though not very subtly.

"Back again are we?" Madam Pomfrey peered at them, "what happened this time?"

"He tripped, and then a telescope bumped into his nose," Natalia explained, resisting the urge to laugh. Sirius glared at her.

Madam Pomfrey looked at Natalia, who was trying hard not to smile.

"Trying to get a look at Uranus, I assume?" she raised her eyebrows knowingly.

"Mars," she broke out into laughs. Madam Pomfrey shook her head as she applied a yellow paste onto Sirius' nose. Within seconds, the bruise was gone and Sirius was back to looking flawless.

"There you go, young man," Madam Pomfrey said, "off to classes, go! I don't ever want to see you here again, you hear me?"

Sirius and Natalia nodded as they walked out of the Hospital Wing and to their first class. Whether they planned to heed her words, was subject to debate.

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog!" Sirius cackled to himself. Natalia looked up from her work and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Brilliant, Shakespeare, but this is Muggle Studies," she laughed, "and this," she held up a Muggle paper bill, "is not an eye of newt."

"Shakespeare was Muggle, and this is Muggle Studies, so I think a quote from ole Billy is quite appropriate," Sirius replied smugly.

"Actually, recent discoveries have stated that Shakespeare might have been a wizard," Natalia said, "that's why he's so well-known in our world."

"Fine, hand me that paper thingy over there," he reached out his hand.

"Adder's fork, and blind-worms sting, lizard's leg and owlet's wing!" Natalia crowed as she gave him a fistful of paper money.

"For a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble," recited Sirius loudly, earning strange looks from people working beside them, one including a tall, brown-haired Hufflepuff boy.

"Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble!" Natalia cackled wildly, waving her arms in the air. Sirius barked a laugh as she threw confetti of money, watching it scatter all around the room.

"Miss Lynx! Pick those up and ten points from Gryffindor!" Professor McGrognon snarled, "And stop reciting Muggle poetry!"

"But this is Muggle Studies, Professor," Natalia said innocently. Professor McGrognon glared at her before turning away. Sirius snickered as she gathered the paper up with her wand.

"Add there to a tiger's cauldron, for the ingredients of our cauldron," Sirius whispered, "Double, double, toil and trouble -"

"Fire burn, and cauldron bubble," Natalia replied, aiming her wand, "cool it with a baboon's blood -"

"Then the charm is firm and good," Sirius finished, aiming his wand as well.

"_Transformus Balatro!_" they muttered at the same time. Two streams of white lights sprung from their wands and hit Professor McGrognon. The professor was suddenly dressed in an overly large, bright yellow suit with red polka dots, and wearing long red shoes. His balding hair was replaced with twisted, rainbow colored curls.

The Professor turned round, revealing a white face with bright colored makeup. Even with his white makeup, his face was beet red.

"Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble," Natalia snickered as the two of them returned to examining their Muggle money.


	4. Chapter Four

**A/N: **So! Chapter Four's here! Hurrah, hurrah! Thank you all so, so, so much for all your reviews! They made my day and seriously encouraged me to keep going. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! This chapter's a bit darker than the others, which were mostly just a fun kick-start to the story. Romance (*insert very undignified squee*) coming in next chapter!

**CHAPTER FOUR:**

**Lynx**

"Where could Nat possibly be?" Lily asked, looking worried, "she wasn't at Charms."

Malia shrugged. "Maybe she decided to skive off this time," she suggested. Lily and the boys looked at each other, but said nothing. They all knew Natalia would not skip classes – she had a perfect record and perfect grades. However, Malia didn't know Natalia very well.

"Maybe," replied Lily, looking skeptical. She gave James a look, and he sighed but nodded as he dragged his three friends away.

"Why can't Lily skip to look for her?" Peter grumbled as the four of them trudged around the school, mostly Sirius leading.

"She needs her perfect attendance award," replied Remus, "though I guess I'm not getting one now," he added moodily.

"Fine, you two head back to the school, James and I will look for her," Sirius rolled his eyes. Within a flash, Remus and Peter had disappeared back into the school.

"Prats," mumbled James, grinning slightly, "But whatever. Where would Nat be?"

"In the library, or outside," Sirius replied after thinking for a moment, "but I think she'd be outside; Madam Pince would throw her out if she caught her out of class."

James agreed, and the two of them outside. Sirius pointed to the oak tree, and James nodded, but didn't move.

"I'll leave you to her, mate," grinned James, "I've got Care of Magical Creatures with Lily." He dashed off before Sirius could call him back.

"Bloody smitten with Lily," Sirius muttered to himself. He cautiously climbed up the tree silently, where he found a familiar figure among the branches.

Her head was resting against her knees, which was propped up against her chest. She stared dazedly, in front of her. She looked fragile; from her glassy eyes, to the small hands that wrapped around her legs.

"Hey you," said Sirius softly, giving her a small smile, "didn't see you at Charms."

"Yeah," Natalia answered after a short pause, "I didn't go."

Sirius snorted and plopped down beside her. Something was familiar about this scene...

"Why not?" he asked after he made himself comfortable.

"I got a letter."

The last time she got upset like this, it was from a letter too... and it was from –

"Who was it from?" Sirius asked grimly, though he knew full well who sent the letter. From the tone of his voice, Natalia laughed slightly and her posture relaxed a bit.

"You guess, mate."

"I'll kill her. She calls herself a mother," Sirius growled.

"And I'll be sitting beside you in Azkaban," grinned Natalia.

"What was the letter about?" asked Sirius, after a more comfortable silence. Natalia took a moment to answer.

"It was a Howler," she finally said, "You know, threats, death promises, torture; the usual. The woes of having a Death Eater mother," She stretched, rubbing her left shoulder.

Sirius nodded. He knew all about Meredith Lynx, the famous assassin, who killed hundreds of confidential targets for Lord Voldemort. Natalia was a failure in her mother's eyes.

"Come on, I'm feeling better. Let's go shoot bogie balls at Professor Binns," Natalia laughed as she got up. Sirius, however, stayed put. She looked at him questioningly.

"The last time we were in this tree, you pushed me off and broke my arm," Sirius told her bluntly. Natalia laughed, obviously remembering the memory.

"Well, you said you could catch yourself, couldn't you?" she said amusedly, "oh come on, I won't send you pummeling down the tree again, alright?"

Sirius looked at her carefully, and sensing no lie, carefully got up. The two of them climbed down the tree and slowly made their way to the castle.

"Hey Sirius, are you good at diving?" Natalia suddenly asked him.

"Wha - what? I - Nat, what are you -"

He hit the lake with a loud _splash_. Natalia choked with laughter as Sirius came back up from the water, glaring at her through his dripping black bangs.

"Aww, it's okay, love, you look absolutely _sexy_ with your clothes and hair wet," she sniggered, trying desperately to stable her laughter, "Especially since the white shirt lets everyone see your _toned body_. Bloody hell, I need a camera. Where's Malia Beauregard when you need her?"

She was so intense in her laughing that she didn't see or hear Sirius emerging out of the water, until cold hands suddenly grabbed hold of her. Startled, she sent a hex at Sirius, who immediately dropped her, groaning in pain.

Unfortunately, in hexing him, she was dropped in the lake as well.

"Feather," Sirius grunted, holding his nose, "Do you have to carry that blooming wand with you everywhere?"

"Well, do you have to drop people in lakes?" retorted Natalia, shivering in the lake, "It's freezing in here! And no kidding; it's practically winter for Merlin's sake!"

"You're also wearing a white shirt," Sirius told her frankly, earning him a hard swipe on the back of the head.

"Perverted drunk monkey," she muttered, pulling at her wet shirt to hide herself.

"Aw, come on Lynx," Sirius teased her, "You look gorgeous."

"Stop staring!" Natalia snapped, sending a Blinding Hex at him.

* * *

"Did anyone else hear about the Howler?" asked Lily worriedly.

Soon after classes that mainly consisted of uncontrolled and wild mischief, Lily had finally managed to drag Natalia away into the girls' dorms to talk. She sat on her bed and looked at Natalia skeptically.

"Bit of the staff was there, and maybe a few other students, but don't worry, no one could hear," replied Natalia confidently and cheerfully, her eyes sparkling.

"Why's that?" Lily asked, looking dubious.

"Everything was in the ancient Lynx tongue," she shrugged, lying on her bed.

Lily nodded carefully, still watching Natalia.

"So what did she say?"

"She's back, You-Know-Who's reign will persevere, she's going to take great pleasure in killing me, she'll be here when I least expect it, and of course, the ever popular disgrace to the Lynx name'," Natalia listed off everything as though she were reciting her grocery list. Lily frowned at her.

"You should take this more seriously," Lily scolded her, "You should really tell Professor Dumbledore, he'd know what to do."

"It's just a letter, it's nothing to worry about," Natalia grinned at her, "besides, he couldn't get into Hogwarts if he tried."

Lily looked extremely doubtful, but sighed.

"What else did he do?"

"Sent me her love," replied Natalia dismally, and Lily cringed. She glanced slightly to the left of Natalia and gave her friend a tight hug.

"I'm always going to be here for you," Lily smiled reassuringly, "just remember that."

"Even if I move to America, marry a murderer and change my name to 'Doolis Murlahoof'?" She grinned, shaking her head comically.

"Then I'd change my name to 'Yularda Hollivern' and go with you," Lily laughed.

* * *

"What's the date for today?"

"July 23, 1459."

Natalia nodded slowly as she quickly scribbled down what Sirius told her, before it finally struck her. She messily scrawled out the date and glared at him.

"What's _today's_ date?"

"November 10, 1976," said Sirius, biting back a chuckle. Natalia grumbled to herself as she dipped her quill into her inkbottle and prepared to write the date again.

"What's the title?" she asked after a short moment of quiet scribbling.

"Ten Reasons Why Sirius Black is the Best Looking Boy at Hogwarts," replied Sirius smugly. Natalia was halfway through writing the title when she stopped and looked at Sirius. She ripped the bit of parchment off and started again.

"Give me the title, _Lily_."

"The Astronomical Discoveries of Jupiter and Mars," replied Lily, shaking her head at Sirius' ridiculing laughter. James looked mock offended.

"Padfoot, I'm choked," he said, clasping his heart for dramatic effect, "How could you forget about me?"

"I'm very sorry, Prongs," grinned Sirius, "I would've added you as worst-looking boy at Hogwarts, but I supposed _Snivellus_ would have already taken it." James gave him the finger while Lily, Natalia and Peter snorted with laughter. When Natalia was done, she glanced at the title, and sighed.

"I think I actually prefer doing Sirius' essay," she muttered. "This assignment is the most boring I've done. I could finish in half an hour and still get an Outstanding."

"I know, right?" Sirius said smugly. "Personally, I can think of far more reasons that just ten. First off, it's the hair." He ran his fingers through his dark locks. "It's perfect - the shine, the length, the style. Then, the eyes," He winked at Natalia, showing his deep gray eyes that were identical to her amused ones. "Brilliant, aren't they? And the voice, there's nothing that sounds better - "

"Except when you shut up," Natalia interrupted him, grinning. "And you have the most terrible singing voice, honestly, it broke the entire Great Hall's goblets!"

"Did not, you broke them with your wand!" Sirius shot back, though his face reddened.

"Well, the goblets would have broken anyway, I just sped up the progress," Natalia grinned toothily. "I sing much, much better."

"Damn you and your bloody blackbird voice," he muttered.

"Ha! So you do admit that your singing voice is terrible!"

"Shut up, Nat," Sirius mumbled, whacking her with his quill.

* * *

"Wait, what do we have to do for the essay?" asked Peter, looking at Natalia anxiously. "I haven't done it yet and -"

"Remus ole pal, how was the tutoring?" said James heartily as they saw Remus shivering slightly from the cold.

"Tutoring? What tutoring?"

_With Malia Beauregard, _Sirius mouthed to her. Natalia snickered.

"It was fine," he merely replied, but his face was tinted pink. Sirius had a suspicion that it was not only from the cold that his face was pink from.

Apparently Natalia suspected it, too, because she pounced on Remus, her essay left forgotten.

"Really now? What did you talk about?" she asked, nudging Remus, grinning suggestively.

"The basics of the flicking of the wand and holding it properly, her grip wasn't completely correct in doing some of the transfiguring."

"Did you help her? Did you hold her hand?" Natalia kept interrogating, but Remus remained cool.

"Actually, all I did was show her how I held my wand and she got it," he answered, "It was just tutoring, nothing more."

"He's a tough nut to crack, but this isn't over!" Natalia eyed Remus comically, causing Lily to chuckle. Remus looked at her dumbly, with a dopey expression on his face, until Natalia finally burst into laughter.

"It always works," Remus smiled as she slowly regained her soberness.

* * *

"Right, so you adjust the grip of your wand a little bit and..."

"Like this?"

"Not exactly, more like this," said Remus; reaching out. It was the second time that he was tutoring Malia, and she was trying, but showing little improvement.

He took her hands and gently guided them to the proper place.

_Her hands are warm..._ Remus thought before he could help himself.

"Thanks for tutoring me, by the way," said Malia quietly, her cheeks flushing an enchanting pink. "I was scared you wouldn't, especially since I hang around Shara and them…"

"It's - it's no problem." Remus could have kicked himself. Why was he stammering? He looked at her, noticing she had the nicest honey-brown eyes he had ever seen.

"Is something the matter?" she asked, realizing that Remus was staring at her. Remus jumped, startled, and immediately looked away.

"Good, good," he babbled, trying to find something more intelligent to say, "Erm, now flick your wand a bit and then swish it around, maybe swish it around counterclockwise then down and up, down and up and then say the incantation," he looked at everything but Malia.

"Wait, could you repeat that?" asked Malia confusedly, "I didn't quite get it. Can you demonstrate?"

"Oh, of course I could," Remus fumbled nervously with his wand, only succeeding in dropping it on the floor. Though it clattered quietly, he could feel Madam Pince's eyes glaring at him, only adding to his anxiousness.

Malia giggled lightly. She bent down and helped Remus pick it up. As she handed it to him, he felt her long, gold hair brushing against his hands. He thanked her and took a deep breath, before successfully turning the inkbottle into a small tortoise.

"Brilliant," said Malia, looking impressed. Remus felt himself redden at her praise, but was determined not to show it as he taught her the next step.

* * *

"Oh Canada, Our home and native la-and, True, patriot love, with all thy sons command," Sirius sang that evening in the common room. Lily stared at him.

"Why Canada?" she asked.

"Well, I've sung the British anthem five times now," grinned Sirius as he took a deep breath. "GOD SAVE OUR GRA-ACIOUS QUEEN, GOD SAVE OUR -"

"You're a horrible singer, you know that?" Natalia covered his ears to dull Sirius's bellowing. "I've heard Nearly Headless Nick sing better than that."

"It was better than ten minutes ago, when he was trying to sing the American anthem," James shook his head. "It's called the 'Star Spangled Banner' for a reason, honestly."

**Chapter End Notes: **I hope you all enjoyed that last chapter. And the ending XD. I felt patriotic and decided to stick that in. If you're wondering, I'm Canadian. Please take a minute to review if you don't mind!

Luv,

ArcanusRose


	5. Chapter Five

**A/N: **Sorry I haven't updated in a while! My best friend Desmond was in Tokyo when the earthquake struck, and I was worried sick about him. Thankfully, he's fine, and I'm meeting him at the airport in an hour! All right, I promised romance in this chapter, and TADA! Here's Chapter Five! I love it when you guys it review! It always cheers me up! Enjoy!

**CHAPTER FIVE:**

**Patronuses (Or Patroni?)**

"Today, class, we will be learning the - erm - Patronus Charm, one which we would use to deflect away Dementors, yes. This is quite a tricky charm, so please - gather around - if you would -"

"Patronus Charm? What the bloody hell is that?"

Natalia whispered to Lily. Lily rolled her eyes.

"He just said! It's a charm to deflect Dementors. Well, actually, it deflects Lethifolds as well. I read about it; it has something to do with happy thoughts and ghostly animals."

"Brilliant, can I keep it as a pet?" Natalia grinned quirkily at her. Slowly, but surely, the class gathered around Professor Deboale (rather reluctantly, might I add).

"Thought only strong wizards could do it," commented Remus, "the Patronus Charm, I mean."

"I know, Deboale doesn't look like one who could do it, eh?" snickered Sirius. Natalia bit back a chortle when she saw Professor Deboale's eyes shut tightly in concentration, and had to restrain her laughter by squeezing onto Lily's hand as the professor made low humming sounds.

"What is he doing?" asked James, staring at the meditating professor.

"Trying to think of a happy thought, I suppose," shrugged Sirius, noticing Natalia's face was beet red from suppressed laughter.

"Maybe he'll find Tinkerbell and start flying to Neverland next," smiled Lily.

Peter looked at her blankly. "What?"

Lily sighed. "Never mind." She rolled her eyes. _Brilliant, the one time I try and make a joke and no one gets it_, Lily thought groaning to herself. Professor Deboale's humming had been going on for at least a minute now and everyone was getting quite tired of it. Suddenly his eyes burst open and he jumped to his feet, screaming, "_EXPECTO PATRONUM!_"

"HOLY SHI-! Couldn't have given us a warning, could you?" shouted Natalia, mouth open with alarm. Professor Deboale turned in surprise at the general direction of her voice.

"Excellent job of laying low," said Sirius sarcastically, but his voice held a hint of amusement. Natalia stuck her tongue out at him and pried herself from Sirius's hand, which was clamped around her arm, gazing in awe at the Patronus that Professor Deboale had created.

"What... is that?" she asked looking dumbfounded, pointing at the ghostly creature. Remus examined it carefully.

"I have no idea," he admitted, scrutinizing it. "It looks like... a cow, with peacock feathers,"

Lily frowned, looking disappointed. Natalia snorted. "Sure doesn't look frightening if it's supposed to ward off Dementors," she chuckled, "I bet the Dementors will just fall over laughing."

Other students were whispering curiously, others were laughing, like Natalia. Professor Deboale cleared his throat.

"Yes, well, as you can see," he started nervously, "that is a Patronus." Peter looked dubious.

"I don't _want_ to learn how to make one of those," he whispered, earning snickers from his friends.

Lily frowned. "It's supposed to be quite beautiful, if you've done it properly," she explained. "I don't know, maybe Professor Deboale's is some sort of unidentified species of cow."

"Still, it's not very flattering, is it? I mean, either way, the animal spirit of his soul is a cow," James laughed.

They all split up into pairs - James and Sirius, Remus and Peter, and Lily and Natalia.

"Wait, what was the incantation? Explico Practicum?" Peter mumbled.

"Expecto Patronum, you goose," laughed Lily, turning back to Natalia. "Now concentrate on a happy thought. Then, when you've got it, say the incantation."

"Blimey, what kind of happy thought?"

"The happiest you can think of."

"You're a better professor than Deboale, you know that?"

"Yes I do, now shut up and think of a happy thought!"

"Moody," Natalia mumbled to herself as she tried to focus. When she had found her happy thought, she shouted the incantation.

A silver mist shot out from the end of her wand and began to form a shape.

"Aha!" Natalia shouted triumphantly. "It's a red-winged blackbird! I always knew there was something significant about my Animagus!"

Lily rolled her eyes in response. "My turn."

She started to concentrate hard, closing her eyes. Natalia skipped over to her. "What are you thinking of Lily?" she asked, her eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Be quiet, or I can't concentrate," muttered Lily. Natalia bet that if Lily's eyes were open, she'd be rolling them. "Are you thinking of the time in Hogsmeade," she continued persistently, "with _James_?"

Lily turned red. "God, Nat, no I wasn't -"

"Of course you weren't, because you were imagining Halloween, when you two wore matching costumes -"

"_Expecto Patronum!_" A thin white wisp formed out of Lily's wand, but nothing else. Lily glared at Natalia, who looked at her innocently.

"Obviously, that memory wasn't strong or happy enough," concluded Natalia firmly, "Well, we'll just simply have to give you a memory, won't we? James Potter, get your filthy Gryffindor arse over here!"

James came prancing over, looking at Natalia curiously. His partner Sirius followed, looking somewhat amused, as he always did when she was acting strange. Which was most of the time.

"Lily can't find a happy memory to produce a Patronus," Natalia grinned at James, "give her a nice happy memory."

"What? What's going on -" Lily started, looking suspicious and red-faced. She backed away slowly.

"Will do, Lynx," smirked James, and bent down to Lily's height. He gave her a full kiss on her shocked lips and quickly ran away, laughing, before Lily could hex him. Lily glared at Natalia, then at the running boy, then at Natalia again.

Unfortunately for Lily, the bell rang before she could do anything. At that same time, Natalia had bolted from the classroom, leaving Lily standing there, with Sirius. Lily glared at Sirius, who looked away, whistling innocently.

"Going to murder that gray-eyed witch," Lily muttered angrily to herself, gently pressing her fingers against her lips. "And that four-eyed buffoon."

"I prefer, 'The Gorgeous One'," James suddenly poked out from behind the classroom door, grinning madly. He narrowly escaped a dangerous hex from Lily, who chased after him down the corridor, until he disappeared into the boys' lavatory, but that didn't stop Lily. No one gets away with kissing Lily like that, no one, not even James Potter. He was going to pay.

Lily blew open the lavatory door with her wand, her stature resembling something like an angry dragon. Her lips still burned from the kiss, and her stomach felt odd. She dismissed her feelings, but let out a frustrated cry when she saw that James was nowhere to be seen in the bathroom.

A while later, Sirius walked out of the classroom with Remus and Peter, still explaining what had happened. Suddenly Natalia came bounding from a wall and joined their group, occasionally looking over her shoulder, flinching whenever she saw girls with red hair walking around the castle.

"She acts as though she's never been kissed before," said Remus, laughing slightly at the way Natalia was cringing and darting around.

"She hasn't," said Natalia, hopping about, "Potter's the first."

"But," Peter said, "didn't she go out with... with that Ravenclaw boy in sixth year? Derrick Binkley?"

Natalia shuddered at the memory. "She did, and I followed them all throughout the date," she said cheerfully. "That date was a complete drag, so I though I'd lighten the mood by dumping a ton of horse dung on his head. Needless to say, it amused two out of three people. She's had admirers, oh yes,"

Natalia grinned, "But for some reason, they always end up either with dung in their eyes, or popsicle sticks down their pants. But the brilliant thing with James," she added, "is that I don't even have to do anything, except maybe stimulating Lily's temper."

She grinned.

"NAT!" came a loud cry of frustration, "GET BACK HERE!" Natalia gave a loud yelp and quickly scampered away. Lily ran out of the boy's bathrooms and pursued the girl, her face red.

"Natalia Lynx! I swear to God, when I get my hands on you..."

***CENSORED***

(Trust me, you do NOT want to know what happened…)

* * *

"Ha! I win!" Natalia jumped into the air, gloating and pretending to wave at her fans. Sirius grunted sulkily.

"It doesn't count as you winning when you incinerate my king with your wand," he complained.

"Oh, stop whining, you're just grouchy because I won the last ten games," Natalia grinned cheekily at him. Sirius began setting up his black pieces again.

"Rematch."

"Fine," Natalia hopped back down into her chair and began placing her pieces in random places.

"Your pawn can't go there!"

"Yes it can! And my bishop will go here!"

"If you could put your bishop there, then I'll lose automatically!"

"Precisely my point, Rapunzel."

Sirius threw his hands up in frustration.

"It's bloody impossible to play a normal game of chess with you," he groaned.

"Want to play Gobstones then?" asked Natalia, looking unperturbed.

"We tried that twenty minutes ago, you started squirting the pieces at me!"

"What are you going on about? I'm brilliant at Gobstones, maybe I should join the Gobstones club..."

"What, that nerd of a club?"

"Oh you're just being mean -"

"Alexander Spinnet is the captain of the club," Sirius grinned down at Natalia. She had her mouth open in disgust.

"You're right," she agreed. "Prats and idiots. It's only eight o'clock, what will we do?" She glanced at her watch.

"Hunt hippogriffs?" Sirius suggested, half-joking, half-serious. He was bored out of his mind. Natalia brightened up.

"I know! We can do homework!" she chirped up enthusiastically. "We've got a page of runes to translate, an essay on Muggle junk, and you've got to do another essay on grindylows and their habitants!"

"I'm done my homework," he snorted, "And what was wrong with the first essay?" Sirius said.

"I accidentally threw it into the fireplace," Natalia explained cheerfully, not looking the least bit scared when Sirius shot her a vicious glare.

"Are you two done playing chess?" Peter came up to them, looking relieved, "Because I don't understand my Arithmancy assignment."

"Pull up a chair, Pettigrew," Natalia welcomed him merrily, "We're just getting started."

"I'm not," Sirius scoffed, "I'm already done my homework."

"Yes, yes," Natalia stuck out her tongue, "you've already told us."

Sirius smirked, leaning back and putting his arms around the back of his neck. However, Natalia leaped up from her seat and poked Sirius.

"Then you can start on that grindylow essay for Deboale," she grinned. "Make grindylows sound as harmless as Flobberworms, if you would." She handed him a roll of parchment.

"Is Remus off tutoring Beauregard again?" Sirius asked Peter.

"Yeah, I think he likes her," Peter shrugged, "I guess she's friendly enough, considering she's Robertson's friend, but she's quite poor. Not a lot of money, if you ask me."

"Peter, money's not everything," Natalia laughed, "Remus isn't rich either, and they're both nice people; I think they make a rather nice couple. Of course, I'm still rooting for Potter and Evans,"she added, "Much more interesting with all their squabbles."

"I guess," Peter said nonchalantly, bending down to do his homework.

* * *

"Wheee! Homework! It's like our own Friday night homework party!" Natalia hopped up and down, toppling parchment and books. Remus, having just come back from tutoring, stared at her surprising outburst. Sirius had a look of pure shock on his face.

"It's like a second Lily Evans!" he exclaimed, cowering his head.

"Bit like a more, obscure, insane, crazy version of Lily," said Remus. Peter glanced at his watch.

"I guess Natalia's one hour of doing straight homework has come to an end," said Sirius, laughing as Peter barely avoided her foot as she danced on the couches.

"No! Not the quill!" Natalia's bouncing slowly stopped when she saw what Sirius held in his hand. Sirius still held the quill threateningly.

"Will you promise to stop bouncing and help me with my runes homework then?" he asked, prodding the quill with his wand.

"Give me back my quill!" said Natalia, sitting back down, "Or..." Sirius gave her a look, "I can't help you with your runes assignment," she added, sounding defeated. Sirius chuckled as he tossed the quill back to Natalia.

"Dunno why you're so worked up about that quill," he said, sitting down himself.

"I got it off myself! Such a pretty black!" protested Natalia, "And it's easy to write with. Brilliant quill, had this since Christmas of fourth year."

"Fine, fine, what's question twelve, then?"

"I don't know, I'm still on question nine," Natalia grinned at him. Sirius looked at her in annoyance.

"Then what have you been doing all this bloody time?" he demanded. She showed him a parchment full of inky scribbles.

"Doodling," she answered easily, "See? There's a picture of you, Sirius," she showed him a rather grotesque sketch of a dog.

"Hil-ar-i-ous," Sirius said sarcastically, emphasizing every syllable, "Now hurry up and do your runes so I can copy it."

"What?" Lily's voice rang into the conversation at that precise moment, "what's going on? What copying?"

Natalia jumped to Sirius' rescue. Or, so he thought at first.

"Sirius wants to copy my runes homework so he can spend more time snogging girls," she said cheerfully, "Why, he's in such a hurry, he wouldn't even appreciate my portrait of him."

"I never said I wanted to snog girls!" said Sirius indignantly, "And - and I'm not copying," he turned to Lily, looking innocent, "I'm just using hers as... notes."

Other than Natalia, Lily was the only person known to be immune to the Sirius Black Puppy-Eyed Charm.

"I'm afraid I have to dock off ten points from Gryffindor for plagiarizing," said Lily, looking unnerved. James, having followed Lily into the Gryffindor common room, gaped at her.

"What? Lily, stop docking off our house! Just - just because you're a Prefect doesn't give you the right to make us lose the House Cup," whined James, pouting at her. When Lily ignored him, he looked around the room, until he saw Peter flipping open a book.

He grinned, clearing his throat dramatically.

"And I hereby award twenty points to Peter's house for his immaculate studying!" he said triumphantly, "And I give myself ten points for noticing such small and helpful things."

"You can't do that!" Lily turned on him, her green eyes flashing, "You're not even a prefect!"

"Oh, and docking points off of Sirius wasn't abusing your power?" James argued, grinning.

"No, it wasn't, because he was wrong for trying to copy!" Lily returned, "it's against school rules!"

"Yeah, Sirius!" grinned Natalia, "Have you no shame?"

Everyone ignored her.

"Well, aren't you supposed to award points to hardworking students?" James said, "And Peter _was_ studying!"

"Reading 'The Comic Adventures of Globsie the Wizard' isn't studying, James!" Lily snatched the thin book Peter was holding. Peter's face turned a light pink, but James did not seemed defeated.

"Of course it's studying! He's reading about the hardships that wizard's had to go through!" said James proudly, "And how he uses his quick wit to get out of sticky situations!" He laughed at his own pun, and only Natalia laughed with him. Remus coughed.

"All he does is eat and steal jelly!" retorted Lily, flipping through the pages, almost every one showing a picture of the plump, bald wizard consuming a plateful of colored jelly.

"The jelly represents our weakness, like money and greed. Globsie is the very person who shows us what we truly are," said James smugly, "It's extremely educational. Right, Remus?" he looked at his friend.

Remus cleared his throat.

"Oh my, I do believe it's quite late," he said quickly, getting up, "I think it's time for bed. Good night," he quickly disappeared into the dorms. With a nervous glance at the two of them, Peter snatched the book from Lily and also disappeared up the dorms. Lily and James turned to Sirius and Natalia.

"_Well_?" they asked at the same time. Sirius and Natalia looked at each other.

"Well, it's quite clear who's right in this case," said Natakua, shaking her head. "Honestly, I'm surprised this argument even came up. I mean, Lily is obviously trying to keep the order," Lily had a triumphant look on her face, "And James... well, he likes jelly." James rolled his eyes, but still grinned at Lily smugly. Lily frowned at James, and then frowned at Natalia.

"Then who's right?" she said, knitting her brow. Natalia sighed heavily, leaning her body on Sirius.

"It's so _obvious_, isn't it?" she said, pretending to sound exasperated. "Of course _I'm_ right! I did absolutely nothing wrong, now did I? This must be some sort of record," she grinned merrily and disappeared up the dorms.

When Sirius realized he was left alone, he pointed energetically up the stairs to the boys' dorms.

"I'm going to, uh, go," he stammered, feeling uncomfortable with the demanding looks he was getting, "Remus and Peter, er, need me to tuck them in. Bye!" he scampered up the stairs.

Lily eyed James beadily.

"This isn't over," she told him sternly. James smirked at her in return.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied smoothly, his face equally as stubborn as Lily's.


	6. Chapter Six

**A/N: **Another GIANT chapter - I thought I'd take some time to do this story since I have absolutely nothing to do today. It's another 2-Part one. Enjoy!

**CHAPTER SIX:**

**Love, love, love, love, _love_**

*** * PART ONE * ***

"They still going at it?" Remus asked as he sat down next to Sirius during breakfast.

Sirius snorted. "You tell me," he said as he pointed to the boy next to him. James was still quarreling with the girl he sat in front of. Natalia looked bored, glancing at the bickering pair.

"Look! It's a blue jelly! That symbolizes calmness and peace!"

"He's attacking the evil Nifflers with the blue jelly, James!"

"Well, he's going to be at peace after he kills all the Nifflers, won't he then?" James flipped to another comic book. "In this issue, Globsie goes to the jelly store..."

"Whose comic books are these anyway?" Natalia stared disbelievingly at the pile James had on the table. "These must be the most ridiculous comic books!"

"They're mine," muttered Peter, looking sheepish. "I let James borrow them for his argument. He was up all night, trying to come up with reasons why the comics are educational."

Sirius laughed as he stuffed a couple of pancakes into his mouth. "They're alright," he said. "Not bad, I suppose, but Globsie's got a bit of obsessive issues there."

"You haven't filled up your plate, Remus," said Natalia suddenly. "Alright there?"

"I'm feeling innovative today," replied Remus readily, smiling, "I feel as though I could write a poem, or compose a song. I feel as though I should accomplish something today."

Natalia looked sympathetic as she nodded. "I had that feeling once," she said. "But after eating myself sick and vomiting into a toilet, that feeling soon vanished. Eat up, mate," she began piling food onto Remus' plate. Remus laughed as he pushed the food away.

"It's a good feeling," he smiled as he put his plate down. "I'm off to the library to contemplate on my creative masterpiece. Cheerio!" And he went off. Sirius barked with laughter at the dumbfounded look on Natalia's face.

"Some people like to do work, Lynx," he told her smugly. "They prefer not to vomit in the toilet for four hours straight."

"How did you know if was four hours straight?" Natalia demanded. "Wait - were _you_ the one hanging around the girls' bathroom, and not Moaning Myrtle?"

"Bloody hell, woman, anybody would be curious if someone suddenly ran off sick and started making loud belching noises into a toilet," Sirius defended himself. At this moment, Lily overheard and stared at Peter, Natalia and Sirius.

"Vomiting? What are you talking about?" she asked. James burst out laughing.

"Padfoot, were you talking about the time in third year when you filled Nat's pumpkin juice with -" He stopped talking abruptly as soon as he caught Sirius' look.

"What?" Natalia bore her gray eyes into Sirius, "_What_ did you do to my pumpkin juice?"

"Aw, nothing much," Sirius tried to sound careless, "You know, just a bit of sugar and..." he muttered some very incoherent words, but Natalia still managed to hear.

_"SIRIUS BLACK! THAT'S BLOODY DISGUSTING! Where are you going - get back here you bloody dickhead! Stupefy! Furnunculus!"_

* * *

_What rhymes with 'story'? Glory, gory, inventory, but that doesn't sound very poetic, does it?_ Remus mused contentedly to himself as he tapped his head lightly with his quill. He had out a crisp, blank parchment and was happily planning to spend over a quarter of the day, succumbing to his poetic cravings.

Thinking a bit more, he quickly jotted down a few words onto his parchment and read the words over to himself.

After reading it twice over, Remus liked his idea, but it seemed as though the wording was somewhat off. Frowning slightly, he gently furrowed his eyebrows as he scratched his head. So hard he was at his work, that he hardly noticed someone tap him lightly on the shoulder. He turned around to face a pretty girl with long golden hair and light brown eyes.

"What're you doing?" asked Malia brightly as she sat down next to him. Remus appreciated her company - he couldn't resist the cheery aura she always carried around her.

"I felt creative this morning," he told her. "So I thought I'd write a poem."

Malia seemed interested.

"A poem? That sounds nice. Do you mind if I read what you've written?" she asked, and he complied, rather shyly. Malia smiled as she took the parchment and read it over silently, mouthing the words to herself.

"Can't quite get the wording right," said Remus modestly, "I've still got a lot to do."

"Well I think it's brilliant," Malia said. "But if I could offer some suggestions, maybe you could change a few words here, and rearrange the beginning part? The wording there is a little confusing," she added helpfully, pointing to the words. Remus took the parchment and crossed out some words and scribbled down a few more. He reread it to himself, and his eyes sparkled at the poem's improvement.

"It is loads better, thanks," he said appreciatively, "I never knew you to be the poetic type, though," he added honestly. Malia laughed.

"I know. I'm just waiting for Shara to kick me out," said Malia tiredly, "I'm getting rather frustrated with these shortened skirts."

"Why wait?" Remus asked. "Why don't you just leave?"

Malia looked horrified at the very thought.

"They'll eat me alive," she said in a hushed voice. "Completely swallow me up and spit me up! And besides, I don't really have any friends to hang around with," she added, sounding slightly embarrassed.

Remus seemed to ponder on this.

"I'm your friend," he gave her a warm smile, "I'll help you out."

Malia smiled sincerely.

"Thanks, then," she said, flushing slightly, "Well, I've got to go, good luck on your poem, Remus," she gave him a quick peck on his unsuspecting cheek. She immediately gasped, as though just realizing what she had just done.

"Oh my gosh," she sputtered, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to -" And without another word, she disappeared out of the library before Remus had a chance to even react.

Remus could still feel his cheek burn even after Malia had long left the library.

* * *

"Will you?"

"No."

"Will you?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"What's going on?" Natalia whispered to Sirius. She had just come back from a standard detention from Professor McGrognon for transforming Bellatrix's teeth into porcupine quills.

"James is trying to ask Lily out," Sirius whispered back. "His tactic is to annoy her senseless."

"I think it's working," said Remus as he pointed to the red-headed girl, whose jaw tried to stubbornly stay calm, but Natalia could clearly see a vein twitching. Soon after dinner, James had taken to annoying Lily, rather than arguing with her. Peter had all his comic books back, and was now sitting on a small pile of the books, reading.

"But we had Hogsmeade -"

"No."

"Don't those count as -"

"No."

"After all we've been through -"

"No."

"- you won't go out -"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Aw, come on."

"No."

"...Don'tgooutwithmethen!" James said in a rush.

"No."

"You really won't?" said James, a grin protruding on his face.

"No - hey, wait a blasted moment!"

"Too late," said James gleefully, hopping about. Lily was flabbergasted; she dropped the book she was holding and stared at James.

"I _won't_ go out with you!" she said to him firmly.

"But you already said you would," James grinned at her. "Didn't she, Padfoot?"

"Afraid you did, Evans," said Sirius gravely. "You agreed to go out with him."

Lily bit her lip and turned to Natalia.

"Tell them I don't want to go out with them," she said, almost pleadingly, "Nat!"

Natalia sighed.

"As Lily's best mate," she said solemnly, "I'm afraid I have to step in." Lily breathed out in relief, but froze when she saw Natalia's eyes twinkle mischievously.

"Sorry, mate, but it's about bloody time," she stated. "There's no way out. Anyway, Lily, you've already gone on a few dates with him to Hogsmeade already, so it shouldn't be too difficult." With her wand, she enchanted what looked like an official document.

"But those weren't dates!" protested Lily. "They were - they were - congenial social excursions!"

Natalia blinked, all while holding the official document.

"I'm just going to pretend that I understood what you just said," she told her. "So that we can just get this over with. Sirius, the quill."

Sirius obediently passed Natalia her quill. She used her quill as a pointer, pointing to various parts of the documents as she spoke.

"This is a contract of everything you said," Natalia explained happily. "As you can see, you clearly agreed to go out with the aforesaid, James Potter. Right here in paragraph 1, 4, 7, and 12, in lines 1, 7, 19, 21... and so on and so forth."

"And to show that you two are really going out," added Sirius, taking the contract from Natalia. "You must adhere to these regulations."

"First of all, the both of you must spend at least one hour of alone time together," Remus read, grinning foolishly as he played along with the arrangement.

"That has nothing to do with homework, or duties, or other stuff like that," explained Peter, looking giddy.

"There is no maximum time, and if you must succumb to _intimacy_," at this Natalia smirked as she read. "Please do it in the privacy of a locked and silenced room of some sort, so that others may not be prone to disposing their dinners unintentionally over it."

Lily glared at her.

"And what if I don't?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"If you don't," Natalia cleared her throat, "we, the jury, must conclude that because you broke this contract, we have no choice but to place a Permanent Sticking Charm on the two of you until you learn to get along."

"Sounds good to me," said James, shrugging. Lily stared fiercely at him, and he turned away, whistling an innocent tune that sounded suspiciously like 'Magic, Magic'.

"I won't," she muttered, "you can't make me sign this ruddy contract."

"Too late, mate," Natalia stuck out her tongue, "It's formed from verbal actions, signing is not needed."

"Since when?" Lily exclaimed, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously.

"Since I invented verbal contracts two minutes ago," said Natalia cheerfully, rolling up the parchment.

Lily gave an annoyed sound and stormed up the dorms. Natalia chuckled. She noticed that James had started to look slightly unsure.

"Give it time, mate," She patted his back encouragingly. "It's like, that Muggle sport - with that big stick..."

"Fishing," Peter spoke up promptly, while Sirius snorted.

"Right, fishing," Natalia grinned. "Pretend Lily's a fish. A parrotfish, interesting fish it is, apparently it excretes mucus for protection - anyway, you have to wait, but give her a big worm - I think Lily would prefer truffles though - and just when she bites, you reel her up - or in this case..."

"Get to the bloody point," Sirius interrupted. She stuck her tongue at him.

"Just be nice, and keep away when she's got steam blowing out of her ears," Natalia told James. James blinked, his eyes suddenly brightening up.

"Did you say she likes truffles?" he asked. "What kind?"

"I think it was chocolate truffles with raspberry..." said Natalia thoughtfully. "Why, are you planning on -"

The portrait hole slammed shut.

"He's in an awful hurry," commented Remus amusedly.

"Aww, that's so sweet, Jamesie's bringing truffles to his fair lady," cooed Natalia.

"I brought you back Pumpkin Pastries from Hogsmeade once!" Sirius pointed out.

"We're not going out, you git," She rolled her eyes. Sirius shrugged nonchalantly as he vanished away James' and Lily's dating contract.

"I hope he brings us back some," said Peter, rubbing his stomach, "all this contracting business has me starved."

* * *

_Dear Lily, I wanted to apologize for tonight's events, and hope that we could start over. Actually, we can't, since Sirius and the lot put that spell on us, but I was hoping to be friendly to one another. Why don't we chat up a bit after dinner tomorrow?_

_James _

_P.S. - a little bird told me that you liked these, well sort of. After that business about the parrotfish and worms. Anyways, enjoy._

Lily smiled to herself as she folded up the letter and opened the small box. Her smile grew when she found a dozen chocolate-covered raspberry truffles, lying quietly and looking delicious.

"You have no idea what kind of little bird she is," Lily laughed to herself. After a few hours of thinking to herself, all her initial shock and anger vanished away. Taking one of the truffles, she slowly bit into it, savoring the taste. _Maybe it's time to give him a chance_, Lily thought to herself, smiling. She put the rest of the truffles away in a safe place and went to sleep.

About an hour later, Natalia came into the dorm quietly, not wanting to disturb the others (quite out of character, but I suppose she didn't want to put up with five cranky and hysterical girls.) She noticed a small note from James on Lily's end table, and a half-opened box of chocolate truffles. She grinned to herself. _Really, this silence is really getting out of hand. _

"MUSTARD!" she screamed impulsively, laughing wildly when the four of the five girls screeched and threw pillows and makeup containers in her general direction.

*** * PART TWO * ***

"_WHAT!_"

Natalia whirled around in surprise from the shriek. It took her a while to realize that it wasn't directed at her.

"Bugger, Lily should get dressed faster," She mumbled to herself as her curiosity grew as the screaming progressed. The screaming, she had decided, was coming from downstairs in the common room. Finally, Natalia couldn't take it anymore and crept out of the dorms, and spied on the group in the common room. Shara Robertson had apparently called a loud meeting with her fellow Gryffindor fan girls, and they were all huddled around in the middle of the room. However, Malia seemed to be isolated. Robertson was shaking from anger.

"You can't do this," she was seething. "You can't just -"

"I - I think I am," Malia was saying, not too confident in herself, "I don't want to worship Sirius Black anymore. For your information, I - I think he's... pigheaded."

Natalia could have snorted loudly when she heard the rest of the girls gasp in horror and horror. It was an absolute miracle she was able to hold it in. She glanced at her watch - it was quarter after six.

"You know, I've been awfully nice to you these past years," said Shara icily. " I can't believe you'd turn on me like this. You're selfish, you know that Malia? You're selfish, inconsiderate, and ungrateful," she turned to the other five or so girls, "Let's go." They stomped away, glaring at Malia, before disappearing out of the common room. The shyness Natalia hadn't seen in a while from Malia seemed to reappear as she huddled into a small ball, biting her lip as she took deep breaths. Figuring she had seen enough, she walked slowly down to the common room.

"Good morning Malia," said Natalia cheerfully as she walked down, you all right there? I saw you with your cousin just now."

"I'm fine," Malia gave a small smile. "It's just the initial feeling, is all. I broke apart from them."

"So I've heard," replied Natalia, chuckling, "It was a bloody screaming contest down here." She laughed as she sat down beside Malia. Malia's smile grew.

"Yeah, Shara can do that," she said. "She's the queen at screaming."

"Reminds me of first year," said Natalia thoughtfully. "When she got awful upset at me when I put Flobberworm bits into her shampoo. There were bits of worm twitching in her hair all day, and most people thought it was hair lice. Screamed at me straight for two hours, it was horrid, I didn't know the Silencing Charm then."

Malia laughed. "I came to Hogwarts sometime in the middle of second year, you see," she explained after a short silence. "Mum and Dad moved me from America to here, and I had to transfer schools. Granted, I was born in England, but still, I didn't know many people back then." Natalia nodded understandingly. It made sense. Malia didn't have time to make friends, since she moved late. So for five years Malia's had 'friends', but never really got the chance to make new ones, because of her natural shyness.

"Nat? Where did you - oh there you are," Lily said as she came down the stairs. "Hello, Malia."

Natalia got up. "Come on, let's go to down to breakfast," she said. "Do you want to eat with us, Malia?"

"Yes, come sit with us," Lily added with a smile. Even though Lily had no clue what had just happened, she still welcomed Malia without question.

"You should sit with _James_, Lily," said Natalia playfully, winking at her friend, "I bet he'd like it." Lily's face grew as red as her hair, but she said nothing.

* * *

"So... Beauregard," James said later in breakfast. "Heard any rumors about me lately?" His hazel eyes glittered curiously and mischievously. Remus secretly wondered if he was going to one day drop dead, judging from the mound of food he had filled onto his plate. Lily groaned and rolled her eyes. As it turned out, Lily did indeed, sit next to her 'boyfriend'. Of course, it had absolutely _nothing_ to do with Natalia maniacal threats that required a squished porcupine and a purple alligator.

"As a matter of fact," replied Malia, "I have heard. I've heard that Lillis Lisse has taken a fancy to you."

"Really?" said James, looking genuinely shocked. "She has?"

"Lillis Lisse is a temptress!" Lily burst in. "Why, she's just as bad as -"

"Sirius Black?" Natalia grinned at the boy across from her. She managed to dodge a bagel that came flying at her.

"Actually, I was going to say Bellatrix Black," said Lily darkly. She shrugged.

"Runs in the family, I suppose," she said. Sirius glared at her.

"They're not my family," he hissed at Natalia angrily. She smiled at him and handed him a nicely buttered bagel in reply. He ate it contentedly and had nothing more to say. Malia gulped down her milk.

"Which reminds me," she said, wiping her mouth with her napkin. "Bellatrix Black seems to be infatuated with Rodolphus Lestrange. Not just for a snog, mind you, but the real thing."

Natalia snorted so loudly that she inhaled her cereal through her nose.

"Bella Black? Roddie Lestrange? They're -" she ended off with a sneeze, blowing the cereal bits into Sirius' orange juice.

"One just might lose their appetite from just watching Nat eat, you know," said Remus casually. Sirius nodded slowly as he continued to watch the soggy cereal swim in his juice.

"Can I have your orange juice, Sirius?" said Peter suddenly, "I'm so thirsty." He reached out to take Sirius' glass before Sirius could reply.

"Peter, the orange juice has got -" Remus stopped talking when Peter started to gulp down the orange juice with gusto.

"Ergh, I think I just lost my appetite," Sirius made a disgusted sound. "Right Nat?"

Natalia was in deep discussion with James, Malia and Lily. Actually, it was the other three who were doing the talking - Natalia was just trying not to laugh.

"Should I ask her out?"

"You can't, James!"

"Why not?"

"Because - because - because of the - you know," sputtered Lily, her face red. She was not going to be the first to mention the enchanted contract. "Anyway, she has a new boyfriend every week! She's outrageous!"

"I don't know, she's had her eye on James since the beginning of October," said Malia, shrugging. "And that's been over a month."

The reason why Natalia was laughing was because Malia was reasoning with why Lisse may like James, when Lily clearly didn't want to hear about it. And Malia had no idea what effect it was having on Lily.

"See Lily? Lillis likes me, or rather, should I call her, 'Lil-Lil'?" James smirked, looking over at the Ravenclaw table, knowing that it would irk Lily. A girl with brown hair and a piercing through her nose caught his eye and winked playfully at him, licking her lips seductively. James flinched slightly, but he looked back at the group smugly, as though he enjoyed Lillis' rather forward actions.

"She - she does drugs! She smokes!" Lily protested. James shrugged.

"Dunno, it'll be fun to go out with a bad girl," he grinned. "The good girls get boring easily. Maybe I'll go find her tonight."

Natalia knew James had gone too far with his teasing when she saw Lily's face grew a deep scarlet as she got up and walked away.

"I reckon you went a bit too far, mate," said Natalia. "She was probably going to give you a chance, you know. She opened the box of truffles," she added, as though it meant something significant.

She distinctly heard James mutter under his breath a single, foul word.

I'm sure you can guess what it was.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Lily completely ignored James, turning around whenever she saw him. She seemed determined not to note his existence. However, James seemed persistent, trying to get her to talk to him during Charms. Lily did not even acknowledge him when he accidentally doused his arm into some dangerous mixture during Potions. During lunch, Sirius and Natalia noticed the consistent protests from James and the coldness of Lily.

For James it was even worse than when Lily was blazing mad and shouting insults at him. The cold shoulder she gave him meant that she didn't even want to think that he was alive, and was indifferent to him. In the end, he grew frustrated. Finally, he got fed up, and merely sat numbly on the couch while Lily briskly did her homework on the other side of the room.

"Well," called Natalia. "It's been an entire day and it's time for you two to spend an hour alone together. It's in the contract," she grinned. Sirius nodded as he held up the official document.

"What contract?" asked Malia curiously, but Natalia mouthed to her 'I'll tell you later'.

"Here ye, here ye," Sirius announced to the room, "Let us leave this room so that Lily Evans and James Potter may be alone together. And if they don't comply, they know the consequences." He ended off with an evil cackle as he and the others seemed to exit the common room. Of course, the common room was far from empty - a group of first-years were getting all excited over a pet cat, some third-years were laughing at a joke, and a seventh-year girl was poring over a potions book.

However, Lily did not move from where she was sitting, and neither did James. He had stubbornly put into his head that if Lily didn't want to talk to him, then he didn't want to have anything to do with her. Neither of them noticed that Lily's chair was shifting closer to where James sat on the couches.

* * *

"Are they doing anything?"

"Nope, but Lily's chair is starting to move," replied Sirius. Natalia nodded.

"Good. Maybe that'll tell them that we mean business," said Natalia cheerfully, not looking at all concerned about the fact that they were about to permanently stick their two best friends together. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's not a Permanent Sticking Charm though," he pointed out. "Otherwise, they'd be stuck for life."

"I know, but a regular Sticking Charm will do well enough," shrugged Natalia. Soon after explaining everything to Malia, she had taken to going to the library. She didn't seem to find as much fun in spying on the couple like Sirius and Natalia did.

A few moments later, Lily had realized she was shifting and had frantically tried to evade. James himself had figured out what was going on and was moving as far back as he possibly could. Unfortunately, he could only move half a centimeter as Lily's body neared his, until they were touching back to back.

"Great, Potter, this is all your fault," muttered Lily, noting his existence for the first time that day since breakfast.

"I don't think you helped this situation at all, _Evans_," James sniped back, thoroughly annoyed with the way she was behaving. They were silent for a few minutes.

"So did you get a nice snog with Lisse?" asked Lily nastily. "Did you find her fit to your needs?"

"Bloody hell, woman, don't get me started," snapped James. "You're too bloody sensitive."

"I'm too sensitive? Potter, you are a pig! You hear that a girl likes you and you forget about everything else! You make me sick!"

"Who said about me forgetting everything else? You, on the other hand, hear someone liking _you_ and you treat them like dirt!"

"Well, I wouldn't treat them like dirt if he wasn't such an egotistical pig! You treat people like their beneath you, you bully people, you, Potter, are the biggest pig I've ever seen!"

"Then you've obviously not laid eyes on yourself lately," James returned spitefully, "otherwise you'd disagree."

"You think this is getting out of hand?" Sirius whispered to Natalia - they were mingling with the third-years, both to hide and listen in. But she shook her head.

"Hush, it's just getting interesting," said Natalia, her eyes sparkling as though she knew something Sirius didn't. It was actually quite an interesting sight, watching two people screaming their heads off at the other, all while being glued to each other's backs.

"You don't even like me - you're just one of those people who want a girlfriend as a trophy. It'll probably heighten your popularity, you think?"

"How do you know I don't like you?" roared James, "when you didn't even give me a chance!"

"Then what's this about Lillis Lisse?" sniped Lily unhesitating. "Could you be liking two people at once?"

"So - so what if I like two people at once, huh?"

Lily let out an angry huff.

"You, Potter, are impossible!"

"You just can't handle someone else liking me, can you?"

"This has nothing to do with anything!"

"Really? Then maybe I'll go find Lillis, snog her a bit and be father to her children then," James remarked sarcastically. "Give her a good shafting, I will."

He groaned inwardly when Lily kicked him hard in the leg.

"You are such a git," she muttered, not with the energy she had before. But James didn't seem to notice as he continued to plow on.

"You know, I bet she's really good at it too, we could probably be on the job all night," he continued. "I hope you don't mind if we're too loud, what, with all the moaning and getting all knackered. Merlin, I'm getting a stiffy just thinking about her..."

"Stop it!" Lily cried out, "s-stop it!"

"Oh, but I forgot," jeered James. "You don't like her, do you? What, with the drugs and smoking... maybe I'll try a bit of weed and intoxicate myself, how would you like that, Evans?"

When Lily didn't reply, James looked over his shoulder. He saw that Lily's head was drooped and she was using her hand to silently wipe away tears. He felt a huge weight of guilt being dropped into his stomach as all his resentment drifted away.

For a few moments, he didn't know what to say.

"You - you know I don't mean that, right Lily?" he said quietly, "You know that - you know that I was joking."

Lily was still silent, but James could feel her arms still trying to wipe away her tears.

"I don't like Lisse," he said, feeling that he should continue. "All that I said was just to tease you, you know that right? I," he turned around to face her, "I think I like good girls more." He saw her tear-streaked face and her glistening, puffy green eyes. He gently wiped away her tears with his thumb, gazing at her.

"You know you're still the prettiest girl even when you've got puffy, swelling red eyes?" he said, smiling slightly. Lily laughed slightly and looked down, a faint blush protruding on her cheeks.

"You're quite the charmer, aren't you James?" she smiled, wiping away more tears. "You always have the best compliments."

"I know I do," he said jokingly. They stayed silent for a few moments, Lily's eyes still downcast.

"Sorry about what I said before," she murmured after a bit, still not looking up. "You're not that much of a pig, anymore at least."

James lifted her chin up and looked at her. Her eyes weren't as puffy anymore, but her cheeks were still red. What he meant was true - she was still extremely pretty. Her soft red hair just seemed to frame her face perfectly.

James wasn't quite sure what had happened, but her lips loomed closer to his and they were soon kissing. His arms had found his way around her waist, and hers were wrapped up around his neck. It was truly a magical moment, for the two of them. It was even enough to make Natalia and Sirius pause and smile, feeling happy for their chums.

"How sweet," she cooed quietly to Sirius, still in their hiding place. "It's so breathtaking, like something out of a fairytale," she sighed dramatically. "Let's make catcalls," she added mischievously.

"None of them seemed to have noticed that the Sticking Charm wore off while they were screaming at each other," snickered Sirius.

Pretty soon, the room was filled with two people's catcalls and whistles.

Shocked, James and Lily broke apart, though their arms stayed in the same position. Natalia and Sirius got out of their hiding spots, clapping and taunting them.

"Only took a day, as well," commented Natalia, eying them mischievously. "Brilliant - I had my money on a week." She grinned. "Quite a subject, don't you agree Healer Black?"

"Indeed, Healer Lynx, indeed," nodded Sirius, scrutinizing them carefully. When Lily nuzzled her head into James' shoulder, Sirius and Natalia made a loud fussing sound.

"Wands out," Lily murmured to James while nuzzling into his neck, "in three... two... one."

"They've got their wands out - RUN!" Natalia shouted when she saw James and Lily holding out wands. In her haste, she ran over Sirius in order to evade the couple. However, both she and Sirius, in the end, succumbed to two unfortunate Bat-Bogey Hexes.

"I knew I should have picked my nose earlier," Natalia muttered to herself as she felt her bogies flying out of her nostrils.

"Does this mean things will be different between the two of them?" Sirius said to Natalia, who was having quite a time with bogie-bats attacking her.

"So you don't like Lillis, do you?" Lily asked James suspiciously as they watched bogies flying out of Sirius' nostrils.

"Of course I don't!" protested James, holding his hands up when Lily pointed her wand at him. "I'll agree with anything you say!

Lily smiled.

"Then I think Quidditch is the most ludicrous sport in all the world," she said, "and it should be banned from Hogwarts."

"Oi!" shouted James and Natalia at the same time.

"That's going a bit far, isn't it?" said James, lowering his hands, "I mean, it's Quidditch! It's got the brooms, the speed, the adrenaline..."

"It's just a bunch of idiots on brooms playing catch," snapped Lily, heading out of the common room for Head Duties. "There's absolutely nothing good about it!"

"Oh yeah?"

"How are your bogies doing, Natalia?" asked Sirius placidly as Lily and James fell into another heated argument outside the portrait hole, "Lucky for me, mine disappeared."

"Yeah right they disappeared, you git!" shouted Natalia, "that's because they're attacking me!"

Sirius succumbed into fits of laughter as she tried to bravely defend herself against both her and Sirius' bogies.

"Merlin, they've got my nose hairs! Get away! _Stupefy_ - oh bugger, sorry about that Louise! I swear I didn't mean it!"

* * *

"And the couple returns," Natalia said, motioning to James and Lily with a magnificent gesture the next morning at breakfast.

"Do you want another Bat-Bogey Hex?" inquired Lily, giving her friend a meaningful half-smile. Natalia grinned at her.

"You can't, I picked my nose this morning," she said triumphantly. "So there."

Sirius looked disgustedly at her. "I did not need to know that," He grimaced. "Did you wash your hands?"

"What for? I used my wand!" Natalia declared, taking her wand out and making a motion that implied she stuck the wooden rod up her nose. When she realized that the entire group was giving her ghastly expressions, she sighed. "I was joking, honestly," she said. However, everyone continued to give her strange looks.

* * *

"What are you doing?" James asked Natalia. She stuck out her tongue at him.

"What does it look like? I'm coming for Quidditch practice," she said proudly.

"It's freezing outside," Sirius complained. "I'm staying indoors with Remus and Peter. Have fun practicing in the blistering cold."

James grinned at him before exiting the common room with Natalia.

Once they got there, however, they were shocked to see that the Slytherins were jeering at them; their faster, more expensive brooms are hovering in the air.

"Hey, we booked the pitch for today!" yelled James, waving his broom at them. "Get off the pitch!"

"And why should we?" said Rodolphus smugly.

"Yeah, what is your team of Gryffindorks going to do about it?" sneered Evan Rosier. The rest of the Slytherins must have thought this to be terribly clever because they all started guffawing loudly.

"Now, now, team," said Regulus smoothly after their snickering died down. "We must not be rude to our fellow classmates. If they really have booked the pitch like they said, then we will trust that they have. Come, my team, let us go to the library and study," and the Slytherin team flew away on their brooms.

James eyed the suspiciously.

"I don't trust them, I don't trust them one bit," he declared.

Natalia snorted.

"Since when does Regulus talk without using contractions?" She rolled her eyes. "You go on and practice - I'll watch out in case any funny business goes on," Natalia told him, and James set off to organize the rest of his team. With a school broom in hand, she hopped quietly onto her broom and zoomed to where the Slytherins had flown off.

_Bloody school brooms, always leans to the left_, Natalia thought to herself as she steered herself from crashing into the Slytherin bleachers. While she was concentrating on not crashing, her faulty broom took a sudden spurge of speed, causing her to lose control. She ended up swerving behind the Slytherin bleachers and crashed right into the Slytherin Quidditch team, knocking them off their feet. Their wands flew into the air in surprise, so no doubt they were plotting something. It was at this time that Natalia's broom decided to stop.

Her eyes widened as the Slytherin boys began to get up, snarling and looking murderously at her.

"Go, broom, go!" she shouted at the broom, nudging her broom to move faster as the Slytherins mounted their brooms. Her wheezy broom gave a start as she speeded away, the Slytherins quickly gaining.

"_Stupefy!_" a red light shot past Natalia's head and towards.

"Thanks, Aden!" She yelled to the Hufflepuff Seeker who had just stepped onto the pitch, aggravating the Slytherins even more. She sped down the Quidditch pitch, the Slytherins now riding right beside her.

"James! Get your bloody arse over here!" shouted Natalia loudly, glaring at the sneering faces of Rodolphus Lestrange and Evan Rosier.

"Nat, stop your broom!" she heard a voice call, and she immediately obeyed. Though slowly the broom stopped, the Slytherins were caught off guard as the team continued to zoom along, having to make sharp turns to catch Natalia, but she was saved as the entire Gryffindor team shot various spells at the Slytherins. Natalia saw Sirius grinning from ear to ear as he had his wand out, cursing his younger brother into oblivion. Once she was off her broom, all the Slytherins seemed to have passed out onto the ground.

"Thanks mates," she said cheerfully, as though she had not been riding for her life less than ten seconds ago. "But I think I'll skip out of Quidditch for today." She continued grinning as she grabbed the school broom and headed towards Sirius, who was staring at her intently.

"What did you do to them?" he asked in amazement. "Even those people aren't prone to ganging up on one person."

"I flew into them," answered Natalia easily, shivering slightly. "But the better question is," she rounded on him, "What were you doing on the Quidditch pitch? I thought you didn't like the 'blistering cold'."

"You... you forgot your winter cloak," he said quickly and bluntly, handing her the heavy and stiff garment. "You'll freeze to death without it."

Natalia raised her eyebrow at him, seeing that he, ironically enough, was not wearing his cloak, but clad in a simple black sweater and jeans.

"Thanks," she said, laughing as she took the cloak and slipped it on. It was then she realized that the cloak she was wearing was actually Sirius', and, judging from the warmth of it, he had just worn it not five minutes ago.

* * *

"Oi, Nat... Lynx, wait up!"

Natalia was just walking back up to the Gryffindor common room by herself when she heard her name being called and turned around. She raised her eyebrow when Aden Irving ran up to her, before running his fingers quickly through his hair.

"Boys always seem to do that," said Natalia. Aden looked at her quizzically.

"Boys always seem to do what?" he asked.

"Play with their hair, of course!" snorted Natalia, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Bit strange, really. And all this time, I thought girls played with their hair more."

"... Sure," Aden said, raising his eyebrows slightly. "So, Nat, you going to Hogsmeade this Saturday?"

"Maybe," Natalia shrugged her shoulders. "Why?"

"Well," continued Aden, "do you have, erm, a date?"

"No..." Natalia looked at him strangely. "Why do you ask?"

This question seemed to frustrate Aden, because he gave her a look. "Because I want to ask you!" he blurted out. "Is that really so hard to figure out?"

Natalia seemed slightly dumbfounded, as though she had not figured that out at all. She looked up at the ceiling for a brief moment, before returning her gaze to Hufflepuff's Golden Boy.

"Well, what if I don't want to go with you?" asked Natalia, grinning. She folded her arms, looking at him curiously. Aden seemed slightly crestfallen, until an idea seemed to pop into his head.

"If you don't," he said, retaining a bit of his confidence, "then I'll just have to use the favor you owe me to ask you." He grinned at her, folding his own arms. Natalia looked thoughtful for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders.

"Then I suppose I have to go with you, won't I?" she said, pretending to sound miserable. "Oh well, we all must go through traumatic and harrowing experiences at least once in our lives." She concluded her dramatic speech with a huge sigh, before smiling.

Aden grinned widely at her response, knowing that she was joking.

"Excellent, then I'll meet you outside the castle on Saturday at around nine then," he said, and flashed her a dashing wink before sprinting off. Natalia gave a small smile as she went into the common room, quickly met up by the rest of her friends.

"How much is a Butterbeer, anyhow?" asked James. "Never got around to finding out. I've just been paying Rosmerta a couple of Galleons each time and I don't count the change." They had bullied the first-years out of the comfortable chairs and were now sitting on them comfortably. Natalia had rested herself on an armrest of the chair Peter had occupied himself in. The rest had either found other chairs, or were sitting on the floor.

"Prissy rich boy," laughed Natalia. "Can't even figure out how much a Butterbeer costs. You've been spoiled silly," she grinned.

"Well, why don't we find out then?" said Sirius, "We'll all go to Three Broomsticks during Hogsmeade and find out."

"Er, can't," said James, looking oddly happy. "You know..." he pulled Lily closer towards him. Lily's face was flushed red as everyone looked at them amusedly. She pushed him away, folding her arms in annoyance. James shrugged and looked innocent.

"Alright then, while you two go find out _together_, Remus, Peter, Nat and I will go," said Sirius, grinning at the couple. He looked at Remus and Peter disbelievingly when the two of them shook their heads.

"I've, er, got a bit of a date myself," said Peter hastily. Everyone looked at him, shocked.

"With who?" they asked simultaneously.

"Prudence Workins," he muttered, disliking their voices of absolutely surprise. "That fourth-year in Hufflepuff." His face reddened. They were all silent, as though waiting for Peter to suddenly jump up and shout 'Surprise!' and reassure them it was all a joke. It didn't happen.

"... Well," said Natalia after a short pause. "Good on you, mate. 'Bout time you got yourself a nice girl," she winked at him.

"And I promised Professor Flitwick that I'd help clean up his class that morning," added Remus.

"And of course, this has nothing to do with Malia Beauregard helping out Professor McGonagall with her own classroom," said Natalia firmly, her eyes twinkling with mirth. Sirius grunted slightly at the lack of company coming with him to Hogsmeade.

"Guess it's just you and me, Lynx," said Sirius. "While everyone else is snogging each other."

"Oh, can't," answered Natalia carelessly, "you see, I have a date as well. As you so quaintly put it, I will be 'snogging' - " - she used her fingers to form air brackets - " - Aden Irving."

"What? When was this?" demanded Sirius, looking aghast.

"Less than ten minutes ago," said Natalia. She noticed Sirius' eyes were flashing angrily, and gave him an amused look. "Lighten up, Sirius - I'm sure you can ask any girl to accompany you."

"I can't _believe_ you're going with Aden Irving!" he defended himself, "he's a prat!"

"Yes well, it's either this or I pay up twenty Galleons," said Natalia.

"When are you meeting him?" asked Lily placidly, because Sirius continued to look heated.

"Saturday, nine o'clock, outside Hogwarts," said Natalia, bouncing around a bit.

Sirius looked careless as he snorted. "Whatever, yeah, I'll find another girl to come with me. Oi, Louisa!" he called to the first girl who passed him. "Hogsmeade with me?" he asked, sounding more like a demand then a question. However, Louise didn't seem to mind at all.

"Sure thing, Sirius," chimed in Louisa, before giggling slightly and running out of the portrait hole, when she had only just came in twenty seconds ago. Sirius turned and looked almost triumphantly at everyone, namely Natalia.

"There, see?" he said. "Nothing to it."

"Good job, Black," Natalia approved, not looking very concerned. "Now we've all got some snogging to do."

For some reason, Sirius' face went dark once Natalia mentioned that 'we've _all_ got some snogging to do'. He had much less to say throughout the rest of the evening.

**Chapter End Notes: **I hope you enjoyed that chapter (Took me forever to write)! I really don't know what to say. Review away!

Luv,

ArcanusRose


	7. Chapter Seven

**A/N: **My apologies for the LOOOONG wait! The system error really got onto my nerves! I promise I'll have another super-long chapter to make up for it! Thank you for reading once again, and enjoy!

**CHAPTER SEVEN:**

**Charles Evans, and Other Things James is Terrified of**

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair," chanted Natalia happily as Professor McGonagall walked around the Great Hall, having people who were staying behind to sign their names. Sirius glared at her.

"Stop saying that," he muttered darkly as he quickly scribbled down his name on the paper Professor McGonagall was passing around. Natalia's grin grew wider. Ever since yesterday evening when Remus finally revealed who Rapunzel was, she had not stopped chanting that one phrase. Needless to say, Sirius was not pleased that Natalia had been calling him a woman with extensive hair for the past three months.

"But it's bloody ace to be called Rapunzel!" said Natalia. "You can strangle people with your super-long hair! And a handsome prince falls in love with you," she added, winking. She expertly dodged a zooming fork that was aimed at her direction. She continued to eat her toast, grinning at Sirius' heated gazes. When Lily saw Natalia that morning, she went into a panicked frenzy.

"Why aren't you packed?" she practically screeched. "We're leaving Sunday morning!"

"And I have precisely twenty-four hours to pack," responded Natalia calmly, "which means I still have time to hex a few people before I leave."

"James has already packed!" protested Lily, "Nat, I can't believe you!" She swallowed hard, she knew that once those words came out of her mouth, she was in trouble, because Natalia's eyes were sparkling again.

"Oh Lily, I'll never be able to measure up to James." She grinned. "He has, what you'd call it, _home-team advantage_. Don't think I didn't see what happened on Wednesday," she teased. "Honestly, did you really think I'd go to bed _that_ early?" Lily turned a crimson red, and even then, she was still extremely pretty. With a huff, she snatched one of Natalia's slices of toast and stuffed it into her mouth, walking out of the Great Hall. She pouted at her lost slice.

"I spent ten minutes buttering it too," she moped, grabbing for another one. She could have sworn she saw Sirius crack a smile.

"You shouldn't eat so much toast, anyway," he said. "You'll get fat."

"I've never heard anyone get fat just from toast before," Natalia mused, using her knife to scoop up some butter.

"Yeah, well," said Sirius, now grinning smugly, "I reckon you can."

"I welcome that challenge," declared Natalia, waving her butter knife at him. "Just you wait, I'll prove you wrong."

"Ooh, am I supposed to cower away from terror now?" Sirius mocked. "What are you going to do, stab me in the chest with your butter knife?" He saw Natalia's face fall slightly, and he immediately regretted his words. He was opening his mouth to apologize when she spoke up.

"Y-yeah!" she said,. "I'm going to stab you!" But instead, she tossed her knife back onto the table and stuffed the entire toast into her mouth. The toast was larger than she thought - she was struggling not to choke on her bread when she saw a dark-haired girl walk over. Sirius' ridiculing laughter ceased when he turned around to face Louisa. She smiled at him, her bright blue eyes sparkling.

"Hello, Sirius," she said sweetly. "I just wanted to wish you a happy Christmas before I left. I'm going to Switzerland for the holidays," she explained. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before exiting, leaving Sirius staring dreamily at her. Natalia rolled her eyes.

"Black, you're starting to drool," she pointed out, swallowing the toast in one gulp. To her surprise, Sirius glared fiercely at her.

"So?" he snarled. "So what if I'm drooling? It's none of your business what I choose to do. You don't own me!" Natalia blinked once, before raising her eyebrow at him.

"I was just saying," she said in a much cooler tone of voice, "that you should wipe your mouth. No need to take things so seriously," she added, getting up and leaving Sirius sitting alone. Sirius sat in his seat, blinking a few times. He shook his head, as though confused as to why he had yelled at Natalia, and stared at his plate.

"Oi, mate!" called out a voice.

Sirius' head tilted up, and for a second, thought Louisa was waving to him from the other side of the Great Hall. However, once she started walking towards him, he saw that it was actually Natalia. She was grinning.

"You coming to Hogsmeade?" she asked, as though she had not just snapped at him minutes ago. "I'm not going to go alone. It's the last trip before I leave." Sirius shrugged, pushing away his plate.

"Sure, why not," he said. "Maybe you'll be involved in another death-defying battle with the Slytherins, and it'll be up to me to save your sorry arse."

"With any luck, mate," laughed Natalia, "I will be."

* * *

"Say, Sirius, how long does it take to get something mailed?" asked Natalia as they walked through the snowy village.

"Nat, St. Mungo's postal service is closed during the -"

"I know that," she said impatiently, "I mean, for a gift, or something. How long does it take to get mailed?"

"I dunno. depends on how far it is. Within the United Kingdom and the rest of Ireland, it's about two days."

"Oh."

Sirius looked at her suspiciously.

"Why?"

"Oh nothing," Natalia waved it off. "Just wondering. Should I get anything for Lily's folks?" she asked, darting into Zonko's. "Which is better, Wartcap Powder or Frog Spawn Soap?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, but couldn't help grinning.

"Nat, I don't think Lily's folks are interested in making practical jokes."

She turned around and looked at him like it was the stupidest thing he had ever said.

"Well, of course I'm not giving them this!" she stated, looking offended. "I was deciding which one was better to use on Petunia!" She folded her arms. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.

"Then I'd tell you to get both," he chuckled. "Merlin knows she deserves it all after the way she treats Evans."

"Right-o," exclaimed Natalia brightly as she loaded her arms with all sorts of devious products. When they were out of the shop, her bag was practically bursting with all sorts of goods.

They went into Gladrags for a short moment, but quickly scampered out. Sirius was basically carrying Natalia because she couldn't keep up with him, due to the fact that she was holding onto a heavy bag full of joke products. He ducked behind the trashcan and panted quietly as some girls sped past the two.

"But Sirius, you look so _dashing_ with those mistletoe neckties hanging over your head," snickered Natalia as she pretended to bat her eyelashes. Sirius gave her a gentle push, but hard enough that she hit the snow.

"Shut up," he said sternly, standing up and brushing the snow off of him. "It was bad enough that you weren't running."

"I wanted to see what would happen if you got caught," said Natalia innocently. They found themselves right in front of the Armilla's Jewelry display window. Sirius groaned to himself - he was still recovering from the painful bruise on his behind when he was kicked out before. He saw that Natalia was glancing at the bracelet again.

"Go on, get it," he urged. "You might as well - you're leaving tomorrow and who knows if some prat's going to get it for his girlfriend." He decided not to mention the fact that he had once tried to buy it for Louisa himself.

"Nah, it's all right," said Natalia, shuffling her feet. "I don't want it."

Sirius snorted in disbelief.

"Yeah right," he said skeptically. "What are you waiting for? You can afford it easily."

"The - the money's supposed to go for helping me out after Hogwarts," said Natalia uncomfortably. "And I don't want to waste it."

The fact that Natalia was, in fact, being responsible for once was more implausible than a Hippogriff going vegetarian. Sirius actually laughed out loud. He pushed her forward, nudging her into the shop.

"Just get it," he urged. "You know your nose isn't going to leave that glass until you do. So get it now, so we can go someplace else."

"I don't want to get it," said Natalia determinedly, though still staring at the bracelet.

"Get it!"

"No!"

"Get it!"

"No!"

"Why not?" said Sirius, starting to get frustrated.

Natalia's voice was so low Sirius had to crane down to hear. "Because I don't have enough money."

Sirius groaned. Typical Nat. "Did you waste it all on Zonko's?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

Natalia snorted.

"Of course I didn't. All those cost only around two Galleons anyway."

"Then what? Wait... did Slytherins steal your money?" Sirius narrowed his eyes immediately after the thought.

Natalia shook her head.

"Then what?" said Sirius, looking exasperated. "What happened to it?"

"Come on, let's go," said Natalia firmly, taking her eyes off the glass display. "Let's go somewhere else." And before Sirius could object, she pushed him along the snowy path, until Sirius slipped onto a rather icy and slippery patch on the walk.

"Nat! You did that on purpose!" roared Sirius as he threw a snowball barely missed Natalia's ear.

"Nuh uh!" laughed Natalia. "You slipped all by yourself. You should have seen your face - where is Malia when you need her?"

"I dunno, but I bet Moony's not too far away," grinned Sirius. She paused, and nodded in agreement. Her eyes widened when she realized that she had stopped running, and Sirius was coming towards her with a devious look in his eye. Before she had time to react, Sirius facewashed her with a handful of snow he had gathered in his hand.

* * *

"Are you almost done packing?" asked Lily anxiously when she saw Natalia and Sirius walking back. She nodded her head vigorously, and Lily sighed with relief.

"I finished packing, alright," said Natalia with energy. "Packed the snow so hard it was practically an iceball by the time I creamed Sirius. That'll show him to facewash me," she said triumphantly, pointing to a red mark on Sirius' face.

Lily was not amused.

"You start packing straight after dinner," she said angrily. "I don't want you to put it off and start panicking at the last second." Natalia gave her a thumbs-up, and the three of them all headed towards the Great Hall for dinner.

James, Malia, Remus and Peter were already there when they arrived.

"I sure hope your mum's a good cook, Lily," said James, grinning.

"Lily's mum makes the best lemon meringue pie," piped up Natalia. "She makes good meatloaf as well. And black pudding." She grinned.

"Say, Peter - whatever happened to that girl you went out with?" asked Malia. "What was her name... Priscilla?"

"Prudence," Peter muttered, ducking his face. "That was a nightmare. She kept demanding me to buy everything for her, and screamed at me for ten minutes when I told her I didn't have enough money."

Natalia nodded in understanding.

"Are you going anywhere, Malia?" asked Lily. Malia shook her head.

"No. Mum, Dad, and Shara's folks are off on vacation, and Shara's staying with friends, so I guess I'm on my own," she said, giving a discreet glance at the boy beside her.

"That's brilliant - Peter and Remus are staying too!" remarked James, grinning.

Both Remus and Malia's gazes dropped simultaneously down to their plates. Everyone laughed.

"S-stop that," said Malia, trying to protest. "It's nothing funny, really, Remus is just tutoring me -"

"Yeah," said Remus. "Just - you know, friends." Both of them were nodding their heads so intensely that everyone broke down into more hysterical laughter. Their mirth subsided for a bit when an owl passed them by and dropped a rather large and thin package to a girl sitting near them.

Mildred, the Gryffindor Keeper, stared at the package in awe, and unwrapped it carefully with her fingers.

"What is it, Milly?" asked a girl sitting beside her.

"I dunno, Jess," replied Mildred. "But... I think it might be..." she gasped. She tore off a bit of the packaging paper, and saw the rich brown wooden handle. She guided her fingers along it, and saw that, in gold letters, read the words, 'Cleansweep 7'.

"This beats my old broom by ten thousand leagues," breathed Mildred, "but who could have sent it?"

"Oh, I don't know... maybe you should read the letter that was attached to it?" her friend Jess said sarcastically, ripping off the envelope and handing it to her. "God, that's a heavy letter," gasped Jess. Mildred opened the letter and read the cursive writing:

_Dear Mildred Mace,_

_Thought you needed a new broom. _

_Happy Christmas._

The note was unsigned, but a large pouch quietly slipped out of the envelope. When Mildred opened the pouch inconspicuously, she nearly had a heart attack. The pouch was full of Galleons.

"You think it's jinxed?" asked Jess, having not seen the coins and was referring to the broom. Mildred grinned, and picked up her new broom and pouch of coins, with a happy glow on her face. _Mum and Dad will be pleased_, she thought to herself, tucking the pouch away.

"Only one way to find out," she said to her friend, then called to a boy. "Oi, Jerks!"

The boy looked up.

"You know how you dare me to race you across the school?" she said, grinning widely. Jonathan smirked, knowing where this was going.

"Ten minutes, Mace," he taunted. "And in fifteen, you'll be doing all my homework for the next two months."

"Not likely, because in _twelve_ minutes, you'll be too busy doing mine." The two of them and a couple of other second-years all got up and scurried out the Great Hall.

Lily turned back to face her company of friends.

"Wonder how she got that broom," she commented easily. James grinned as he reached for his favorite treacle tart.

"I don't care, with that broom, we have a chance to win!" he whooped loudly, I could kiss the person who sent her that broom!"

"Trust me, Potter, I don't think you'd want to kiss them," said Natalia amusedly. She continued eating her mashed potatoes serenely while the others remained discussing the mysterious issue regarding Mildred's broomstick. Sirius kept shooting her accusatory looks, but Natalia's eyes were glued to her plate. After dinner, when everyone made their way up to the common room, Sirius made sure to hold Natalia back.

"Why did you do it?" he asked her. She looked at him blankly.

"Why did I do what?"

Sirius gave her a look.

"Why did you send Mildred that broom? Don't deny it - you took my magazine because of that order form, you knew about that discount on the Cleansweep 7, _and_, you didn't have enough money to buy that bracelet!" he finished off triumphantly.

"I won't deny it, then," said Natalia, looking amused.

"But why did you spend all your money for that broom?" persisted Sirius. "I mean, you could've used it for better purposes, like buying a house, or -"

"Mildred needs the money more than I do," said Natalia, shrugging, "And besides, the extra hundred Galleons will help out her family. Come on, mate, it's the Christmas spirit!" she laughed sincerely. "I feel loads better from doing that. Did you see the look on her face? She was literally glowing!" Natalia grinned and walked through the portrait hole.

Sirius thought to himself for a moment. She never ceased to amaze him, even after all the years he had known her.

His mind wandered to a leather pouch that he promised to be only used for emergencies. Finally, he gave a smile, remembering the expression on Natalia's face when she thought of Mildred's reaction, and walked into the common room as well.

There was still Hogsmeade tomorrow.

* * *

"Lily, you've got a lovely front yard," said Natalia pleasantly. "Did your folks build a new patio? I feel taller for some reason."

"Get off of me!" grunted James. "Your shoes smell."

Natalia continued to stand on him.

"Quite a lovely patio," she commented, bouncing her feet slightly. "It feels all warm and squishy." She grinned as she finally stepped off of James, who gave her a death glare.

"When I meant Apparating to the same place, I didn't mean it like that!" he snapped, picking himself up. Natalia shrugged innocently.

"Forgive me, I nearly failed my Apparation test." She smirked. Lily covered her face with her hands and shook her head. She took out her keys and inserted one into the keyhole.

She opened the door.

"Mum, we're home!" Lily called out. "And thank God," she muttered to herself as James and Natalia cluttered in. Someone poked their head out of the doorway inside the house.

"Lily? Is that you dear?" a middle-aged woman squinted her eyes. When she recognized her redheaded daughter, she hurried over and gave her a bone-crushing hug.

"Goodness, you've grown - where is your father - Charles!" she called out. A man came through the doorway as well.

"Well, if it isn't my Silly-Lily," he said affectionately. He directed his glance to the people behind his daughter. "I see you've brought friends," he added, his voice stern. He narrowed his eyes. "State your full name and relation to my daughter," he barked. Lily flushed red with embarrassment, and Lily's mother shook her head, smiling.

Natalia smiled and stepped forward boldly.

"My name is," she took a deep breath, "Natalia Angelica Lynx," she grinned. "And unless I'm mistaken, I'm Lily's best mate."

"You can just call her Nat, Dad," she said hurriedly. Lily's father nodded his head and behaved a great deal warmer towards Natalia, giving her a smile. He darted his gaze to James and glared at him.

"And you?" he asked in a threatening tone, as though daring James to answer. Suddenly, James wasn't so sure he knew his own name.

"My name's, uh, James Walter... Potter?" he said, looking as confused as he sounded. Natalia tried to stifle a laugh. "I'm Lily's boy..." he stopped; the look Lily's father was giving him was enough to dig him an early grave.

"He's my boyfriend, Dad," Lily said for him. "We've been going out for a couple of months."

Lily's father raised his eyebrows so high Natalia could barely see them. Lily's mother gave her husband a look.

"Come on, Charles, it's about time Lily brought home a nice boy," she scolded in a tone that could have been mistaken as Lily's. "Now why don't you welcome the lad in while I go make some hot tea," she said, more like a demand than a suggestion.

Lily's father cleared his throat, having regained his composure, for the moment. "Miss Lynx," he nodded to Natalia, "can share with Lily's room. But as for you," He glared at James. "We've got a separate bed in the _guest's_ room. I think you'll find it quite comfortable - it's right next to mine." He trudged grumpily into the sitting room.

Lily and her mother looked rather embarrassed, James looked somewhat petrified of the sitting room and Natalia was choking with laughter.

"You must excuse Charles," Lily's mother said, smiling apologetically. "he hasn't trusted boys since Petunia started dating. She brought in a, _colorful_ bunch, so to speak. You may call me Mary."

"Where is Petunia, anyway?" Lily asked as James nodded his head politely, but the fear in his eyes did not disappear.

"Oh, probably moseying about town, she's been dating some boy for a few years now," Mary scratched her head. "Erm, name was Dirkley... Dursley! Anyway, tea," she snapped her fingers and went busily into the kitchen. Lily shot the two of them a reassuring smile as she followed her mother.

"Go into the sitting room," she whispered before she left. "You can get to know Dad."

"He might kill me before then," muttered James once Lily was out of earshot. Natalia, however, wasn't, and laughed.

"Lily says that he used to be part of those... Muggle army people," she whispered. "But he retired. Anyway, he went on loads of trips during summer. This is the first time I've visited for Christmas."

"Is there anything I should know other than that?"

"Why, yes there is," said Natalia, sounding delighted. "He's got a rather nice metal thing hooked at the top of the fireplace. It's the Muggle way to kill people without using their hands."

James groaned.

"Don't worry, mate, if he gives you any trouble, you've got a wand."

"I don't think Lily or her mum will like it much if I hex him," muttered James.

Natalia shrugged and grinned, before elbowing James hard. He stumbled, and tripped into the sitting room. She walked lightly behind him.

The sitting room was actually quite comfortable, with a roaring fire and a couple of comfy chairs and sofas. A mahogany coffee table was set to one side of the room, and a chess table sat beside it. The curtains were pulled back, revealing white flurries of snow. A man sat grimly in a dark red armchair, his shoulders square, his jaw set. James' eyes automatically darted to the fireplace, and felt his stomach clench when he saw the odd metal object that Natalia had described before.

"Take a seat, boy," Charles said sternly as James scurried a couch. Natalia followed, though her behavior was more cheerful and less afraid.

Charles gave him a steely look.

"Now, according to my wife, you are currently seeing my daughter?" he said, more of a statement than a question.

"... Er... yeah..."

"And what are your intentions of seeing my daughter?" he continued to shoot his questions. "Why are you attracted to her?"

"She's clever, kind, and er - pretty," James said, immediately regretting his last word when Charles narrowed his eyes even more. Natalia watched the conversation with an amused eye.

"Pretty, you say?" he bellowed. "What do you mean by 'pretty', boy?"

"Uh, she's got nice hair, she - uh - has nice eyes," James stuttered, looking at Natalia for support, "and - uh -"

"What about her body? Do you think about that?" barked Charles, his eyes fired with suspicion. "What do you think that, boy?"

James stared, not knowing what to answer.

"Answer me, boy!" he ordered furiously, his face red. When James didn't answer, Charles let out a grim laugh. "I know your type, boy," he snarled. "Just want the body, don't you? A one-night stand, and then you leave her. Not on my watch, boy," he growled, leaning closer. "Nobody harms my Lily like that and gets away with -"

"Hey look, a chess table!" said Natalia suddenly, pointing to the left, "James loves to play chess! Why don't the two of you play against each other?" She smiled sweetly at Charles' look.

Charles narrowed his eyes once again.

"You play chess, boy?"

"Uh, yes?"

"Can't you answer a question? Yes or no?" demanded the father.

"... Yes, I play chess," said James, slightly more firm. Charles slowly got up from his seat.

"Then let us go to war," he said, sparing a glance at his beloved M1917 Enfield rifle sitting above the fireplace.

* * *

"Pawn to D4!" said James firmly to the chess table. The chess piece didn't move.

"What's the matter with you, boy?" growled Charles. James mentally slapped his head as he heard Natalia chuckle. Muggle chess, right...

He took his pawn and moved it to the desired location. Charles looked thoughtful as he moved his black pieces. James took his horse and made an aggressive move. Charles chuckled as he took James pawn.

"Shouldn't have done that, boy, you just lost your defenseman," he said, a hint of smugness in his voice.

"Maybe not," said James, as he was about to shout an order again, but he caught Natalia's look and moved it himself, somewhat sheepishly.

* * *

Thirty minutes had passed, and the women had come back with hot tea and were watching them play.

"You're not too bad at this," said Charles, in a noticeably friendlier tone.

"Thank you sir, you're doing quite well too," said James politely. "Checkmate."

Charles stared flabbergasted at the table, and finding there was no alternative, he admitted defeat.

"Great game! Must've been the longest game I've ever witnessed!" said Natalia, clapping her hands. "Of course, by then I would've gotten bored and hexed Sirius then," she added with a grin.

Charles gave James an approving nod.

"I like a man who can play a good game of chess, it shows brains," he said. "Welcome to the family, James." He shook James' hand. James appeared slightly dazed.

"Dad, we're not getting married - " Lily started awkwardly, but Charles interrupted her.

"Nonsense, I'd be proud to call him my son," he said, smiling. "I think I'll go get more tea now." He trudged over to the kitchen. Mary winked at them and followed her husband.

"Talk about coming full circle! From potential pervert, to beloved son-in-law. After just one game of chess, you're part of the family!" Natalia clapped her hand hard on James' shoulder. "How do you feel about that?"

"I'm bloody glad I'm not dead," James muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. Lily laughed and gave him a peck on the cheek.

**Chapter End Notes: **Hehe, I hope you all enjoyed that one. I'm already working on a new extralong chapter, so stay tuned for more! Reviewing only takes a second - but writing, now THAT takes time to do. Hugs and kisses to RainingTearsandPixieDust, Murasaki Argenteria, and my good old pal Desmond Kyokoshima for sticking with me all this time! I love you guys!

Luv(lol),

ArcanusRose 


	8. Chapter Eight

**A/N: **Here's an extra-long XMAS special! Although in the real world it's not actually Christmas... I wish it was... Ah, presents... trees... the smell of sugar plums... oh what the heck am I doing...?

**CHAPTER EIGHT:**

**Marauder Christmas**

"_You ain't nothin but a hound dog,_

_Cryin' all the time._

_You ain't nothin' but a hound dog,_

_Cryin' all the time_,"

Malia sang, bouncing around in the empty common room. Her golden hair sprung around her face, swaying and flouncing in the air. She waved her arms crazily, pretending to hold onto a microphone and was singing into it. She didn't notice that someone had entered the room and was watching her. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he watched the girl dance and jump on the couches like a possessed pixie.

"_You ain't nothin' but a rabbit,_

_And you ain't no friend, of miiiine!_"

Malia shook her head wildly as she held the last note and jumped off the couch and slid on the ground. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped when she heard clapping in the background.

"Bravo," said Remus, laughing as he clapped his hands. "Brilliant singing. I especially liked your dance moves," he grinned, holding out his hand. Malia flushed pink, but she took his hand and he firmly pulled her up. Malia ducked her head, feeling that she would utterly die from embarrassment.

"Malia?" asked Remus carefully. Malia looked up, and found that Remus' blue eyes were not twinkling from ridicule and mockery, but with warm laughter and kindness. For once, Malia decided not to take some person's light teasing to heart. She flashed him a smile.

"And what were you doing, Mr. Lupin?" she demanded jokingly. "Spying on girls, are we?"

Remus' own eyes widened with surprise, but his smile grew. "I only spy on girls who dance as graceful as mermaids on land," he replied serenely. Malia laughed as she dusted off her pants. She smiled to herself - it felt good to wear pants again, because even when she wasn't in her Hogwarts uniform, Shara required her gang of girls to dress in skirts for some odd reason.

"Anyway, you really are a good singer," said Remus honestly. "Even though your dancing _does_ have something to be desired."

Malia laughed, her eyes sparkling. However, she suddenly became very aware of her surroundings and told Remus that she was going back up to her dorms to finish off some homework. Her heart was beating rapidly as she climbed up the stairs.

_What's wrong with me?_ She asked herself, though, deeply nestled in her heart, she already knew.

* * *

"Happy Christmas, Mum," said Lily, smiling. Her mother laughed heartily.

"Happy Christmas to you too, dear," she said, "it was nice having you home again. It was also nice to see you again, Natalia," she turned to the girl, "and you too, James." She leaned over to whisper in his ear, "Play your cards right and we'll be seeing you more often."

"Thanks, I plan to," replied James, grinning. Charles stepped forward and gave James a firm handshake and a brief nod. It may have seemed cold, but the sentence Charles uttered gave James all the encouragement he needed.

"You play a mean chess game, boy."

"Oi!" rang in Natalia's happy voice. "Thanks for the brilliant meals, Mrs. Evans, and the entertaining war stories, Mr. Evans. And thank you, Petunia," she beamed at the sullen sister, "you have lovely reactions."

Petunia gave her the meanest look she could muster behind her mother's back.

Lily gave Petunia an unsure smile. "Well, goodbye, Petunia," she said, tilting her head slightly, "Happy Christmas."

"Thanks, I intend to," came her icy reply.

Lily shrugged it off and headed out the door, followed by James and Natalia. Mary and Charles waved them goodbye as the three of them took out the wands. In three small pops, each one disappeared out of sight.

"I still think you should have hexed her," complained Natalia noisily as they walked towards the brick wall between Platforms 9 and 10. "I mean sure, I might've gone _slightly_ overboard with the head in the pickle jar business, but still! She's your bloody sister!"

"Ah well," said Lily. "It wasn't that overboard. At least it wasn't her own head," she added, laughing as she looked at the messy haired boy beside her. He scowled at Natalia, rubbing his head tenderly.

"Next time it'll be your head," threatened James. Natalia stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared into the brick wall before he could do anything to her.

Soon, all three had boarded the Hogwarts Express and found a compartment to sit in as the long train ride to the castle progressed.

"Pity we couldn't find any Slytherins," said Natalia wistfully. "Something to pass the time."

"Please, all the Slytherins we know have gone home," scoffed James. "Probably at Grimmauld Place - I heard Regulus bragging about it when we were on the train to King's Cross."

"Ah, yes," said Natalia. "Seven Bat Bogey Hexes and a sprinkle of Wartcap Powder. It was a good train ride," she said happily.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, I am personally glad that there's no one on the train we can bother," she declared, taking out her bag, "because now we can take the time to do a bit of homework, since I had no time to do it at home." She gave them all a meaningful yet dangerous looks, and with dramatic sighs, Natalia and James reached for their parchments and quills.

"But I don't want to translate runes," pouted Natalia as she dabbed her blackbird quill into a jar of jet-black ink.

And when the lady with the trolley came bounding around, Natalia did not miss the chance to drop her quill and take over two hours selecting the perfect Pumpkin Pastry.

"Naaaaat!" shouted Lily.

"Hush, Lily, I'm trying to decide which Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean to choose," called Natalia from outside. "Does the sewer green taste like lime, or broccoli?"

"It's _sewer_ green, for heaven's sake!"

* * *

"Nat!"

Natalia stopped walking as she heard her name being called. She turned around, and saw Sirius scampering quickly towards her. Behind him was an entire crowd of girls, varying from seventh year to third year. Some of them were even puckering their lips. Natalia was slightly muddled - she had thought most students had gone home for the holidays. Apparently not.

"Nat, help!" Now, normally Natalia would've grinned and enjoyed the show, but because she felt that Sirius would seriously maim her for it, she motioned him to the Gryffindor portrait. Besides, Sirius had yet to forgive her for that stunt she pulled down at the Great Hall yesterday. Mostly because he wasn't able to get all the cranberry smell off, and he spent the rest of that day with a slightly putrid stench to him. She turned to the Fat Lady.

"Do me a favor?" she asked the Fat Lady.

"I suppose so, I do owe you one for fending Peeves off from doodling on me." The Fat Lady sighed from the painful memory. "What do you need?"

"When that boy comes in, don't let anyone else in for twenty minutes," said Natalia. "He has girl problems," she smirked.

"Will do, my dear, here he comes now, I suppose?"

"That's him, _Mistletoe Saviolum_!" she chanted the password and stepped in. Seconds later Sirius followed and the portrait closed. Shrieks for Sirius could be heard from behind the portrait. Natalia was grinning madly at him as Sirius caught his breath.

"Th-thanks," he gasped, taking deep breaths.

"Can't handle the public, Black?" Natalia sniggered at him. "Have they fallen for you?"

"Dunno what the blasted thing happened, I just went into the Great Hall and they started chasing after me," muttered Sirius, shifting his eyes. He noticed Natalia's eyes flicker to something directly above him. Looking up, he saw it too. Mistletoe was softly hovering over his head.

"James," he growled, digging into his pockets to retrieve his wand. "I'll bet anything it was that little wanker."

"Third years were chasing after you!" Natalia continued to snigger. "Honestly mate, maybe you should tone down the Black charm."

"_Incendio!_" Sirius pointed his wand to the mistletoe. The spell backfired - instead of incinerating the holiday plant, the spell rebounded. "Oh shi-" Sirius swore as he had to jump off the couch before the spell set it off into flames. He extinguished the couch, but the mistletoe was still there. The couch, on the other hand, smelled oddly of burnt bacon.

"Get - this - bloody - thing - off!" Sirius shouted frustratingly as he hopped up and down, trying to grab the plant. But the plant bounced up in down, avoiding Sirius' reach. "Nat!"

"Don't get your knickers tied up in a knot, I'm coming," Natalia laughed as she propped up a chair where Sirius was hopping and jumping. She stepped on the chair, helping her height profusely, and reached to grab the mistletoe, but the mistletoe evaded her reach as well. Leaning on Sirius for support, she frowned as she leaned further, but still unsuccessful. "Looks like I'll have to jump to catch that little bugger," Natalia mumbled to herself as she stretched out her arms and prepared herself. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she leapt into the air.

"Merlin, Nat, what the hell are you doing?" shouted Sirius as her foot collided into his shoulder and he fell over. Natalia caught the mistletoe triumphantly, but obviously forgot to figure how she was going to get down, and fell. Luckily for her, Sirius proved to be a comfortable landing cushion.

"Whew, that was kind of fun," said Natalia cheerfully. "Let's do it again!"

"Over my dead body," came Sirius' reply. "And you better have gotten the mistletoe -"

"Right here, mate!" Nat proudly held up the small plant as she got up. "No worries." Soon, both people had gotten up and were more lighthearted about their previous encounter with the enchanted mistletoe. Just then, Sirius happened to look up, and his eyes widened slightly in apprehension.

"Er, Nat..." he said, using his finger to point up. Natalia looked up as well, and stared when she saw what Sirius was pointing at. Directly above them, was a small plant with tiny white berries, dangling from a satin red ribbon. It seemed to mock the two of them, swaying ever so slightly, the small golden bells that were attached to the plant chiming and tinkling softly. It was a rather beautifully decorated, this mistletoe, but neither Sirius nor Natalia saw its divine simplicity. They only saw the mistletoe. She waved her hands madly in the air, shaking her head furiously.

"No way, mate, no way," she said, "I am not going to kiss-"

"But it's tradition!" Sirius said, sounding mock-sad. He was enjoying the look of fear mingled with disgust on Natalia's face. "If we don't kiss, we'll break the tradition. And who knows, the mistletoe might hex us if we don't."

Natalia snorted. "Yeah right," she said, and started to walk away. She started walking funny, as though an invisible force held her back, and before long she was back where she was standing not thirty seconds ago. Sirius smirked at her.

"Told you so," he grinned. "Come on, it's not that hard." He could hear Natalia muttering under her breath, before she reached out and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"There, now I can go," she said, _trying_ to walk away. Sirius laughed at her failed attempt. "Bloody hell! What do I have to do!" Natalia exclaimed, looking annoyed. "I swear, I'm going to _murder_ whoever hexed this mistletoe..."

She hopped up and down, trying to get at the mistletoe, but it behaved like the one Sirius had and merely evaded her grabs. A second-year boy, who had just entered through the portrait hole (the twenty minutes was up), started laughing at them. Another boy joined him, and they were soon swallowed up in uncontrollable laughter. Natalia immediately recognized them as Simon Taylor and Jonathan Jerks.

"Can't believe - someone actually - our mistletoe!" Jonathan choked out, leaning over his friend for support. Simon nodded, his face red.

Natalia glared at them harshly, so harshly that they started to sober up.

"Alright, alright," Simon said. "Just give each other a sloppy Frenchie and the spell will go away. We've got to see this, Jonny," he smirked to his friend.

"Get this spell off," Natalia hissed. "Or else." Her look was so frightening that even Sirius stepped back from her, or as far back as he could, anyhow. With a cocky look from the two, Simon and Jonathan began taking out their wands reluctantly.

"Party-pooper," Simon muttered under his breath.

"I second that," Jonathan chimed in, grumbling as well.

"Taylor! Jerks! You slimy cockroaches!" came a screech from the girls' dorms. Mildred was glaring at the two, her hair unusually frizzy.

"Oops, forgot about that one," snickered Jonathan, nudging Simon in the elbow. Simon guffawed along, not noticing that Mildred had her wand out and was coming closer towards the two. Fortunately, Simon had tilted his head up just in time to see Mildred no less than ten feet away.

"Bloody hell! Run for your life Jonny!" They scrambled over each other as the pair dashed for the portrait hole, with Mildred hot on their heels.

"When I'm through with you Jonny..." Mildred was yelling as she ran after them.

"Oi! What about us?" Natalia called. "We're still stuck here!" But no one paid attention. Sirius was eying her amusedly.

"Now what?" Sirius asked her. "Ready for a bit of snogging then?"

Natalia smacked him hard in the head in response.

"Face it, Lynx, we're never going to get out of this if we don't kiss each other," smirked Sirius, "So we might as well get it over with."

After a few minutes of unsuccessful counterspells, Natalia finally yielded. "Fine," she muttered, "but we must never speak of this again."

"Right-o," said Sirius, personally glad that he wouldn't have to stand here any longer.

"Yeah," said Natalia heatedly. "And if you breathe a _single_ word of this, and I find out, Merlin help you because when I'm through with you, you'll- _mmrph_!"

She was silenced by the impact of Sirius' lips suddenly pressing against hers. Her lips were soft, he decided, and were cool to the touch. This should be no big deal - he had kissed dozens of girls before. Even so, for some reason his mind was spinning, his stomach was in turmoil, and he could almost swear the symptoms got worse when he felt Natalia kiss him back. Even though he'd never actually witnessed any of it, Sirius reckoned that Natalia had had a lot of experience in kissing. When they finally broke apart, Natalia wasted no time in ducking out of the mistletoe and heaving a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank Merlin," she breathed, before turning back to Sirius, her eyes flashing. "And you'd better not speak a word of this to anyone, you understand?" Before Sirius could respond, Natalia whipped her head back and skimmed out of the common room. Sirius frowned slightly to himself - he was still confused at the whole business with his head and his stomach. Obviously, Natalia must have hexed him; there was no other solution. He decided to take a quick trip over to the Hospital Wing. Making sure he avoided every mistletoe along the way, Sirius could not deny that he enjoyed the kiss. _But Nat's my mate_, he thought, _I can't. Maybe its because I must've confused Nat with Louisa, yeah, that's right!_ His inner voice snorted with scorn. By the time he had gotten around to the Hospital Wing, he was thoroughly irritated with himself and snapped at Madam Pomfrey when she greeted him.

"Well, it seems as though nothing is wrong," she told him curtly after a quick examination. "Other than your attitude problem, but I can't legally heal that."

"But what about my headache and stomachache?" protested Sirius.

"There is nothing wrong with you," repeated Madam Pomfrey firmly. She showed him the door. "Happy Christmas."

And he left, feeling more perplexed and confused than before. He didn't even notice James until he felt a hearty clap on the shoulder. "Hullo, Padfoot," said James, grinning ear to ear. "Seems as though you've managed to get the mistletoe off."

Sirius snapped out of his nonsensical reverie and glared at his friend. "Yeah, I have," he said. "But I have a feeling that you need a good dose of Christmas as well." James' eyes widened slightly.

"Aw, come on, mate, it was a joke!" he laughed nervously, backing away.

"Yeah, and when I get you back, I'll laugh over it for months," came the reply. He pushed his thoughts out of his mind as he decided to focus on the present situation on hand: Whether his best mate looked best dipped in plum, or figgy pudding.

* * *

"I swear, you boys are so immature!" said Lily crossly. She folded her arms, glaring at the sticky pair in front of her. The boys bowed their heads.

"Sorry, Lily," they chanted sweetly, sounding like two children who wanted to escape a scolding. Lily frowned, before grabbing a soapy cloth and scrubbing the floor with it.

"No thanks to you two," she said huffily. "Now I've got to spend the rest of the day cleaning up the mess _you_ made from the figgy puddings."

"Don't forget the plum pudding!" said Sirius. "And Flaming Christmas pudding!"

"How could I forget?" grumped Malia, also frowning. She glanced at her slightly singed strands of golden hair. As Shara would say, Malia was in dire need of a hair stylist at this point, before somebody saw her.

"At least it was better than the time Nat dyed your hair," remarked Lily absentmindedly. She raised her eyebrow slightly when she saw Sirius stiffen, before he kneeled back down to furiously scrub the floor.

"Why?" asked Malia, "I thought she did a lovely job with my hair."

"What? Oh, yes!" said Lily, bobbing her head feverishly, realizing her slipup. "Yes, yes she did." She had forgotten that Malia was unaware of the fact that Natalia had singlehandedly caused Malia to have a short-termed baldness problem.

"Oi, are you talking about me again - whoa!" Natalia stepped into the Great Hall. She widened her eyes as she took in the Great Hall. Its usually beautiful holiday decorations were plastered in a chunky brown substance. She tasted some that hung from a large Christmas wreath. It was undeniably plum pudding, she thought, still warm. That meant...

"You had a food fight without _me_?" she shouted in dismay, "I am choked and offended! Lily, how could you?"

"Do you think I _wanted_ to participate?" Lily snapped, wiping her brow with her arm. "It was all James and Sirius' doing! Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall caught them and made us _all_ clean the mess up!"

"Actually," said Malia, her honey-brown eyes sparkling, "she only made the people who contributed to the mess to clean up. Now, I'll gladly take some of the blame," she said, laughing. "But don't forget, Lily, you were caught red-handed with a mound of pudding in your fist..."

Natalia gasped. "Lily Evans! What in the name of Merlin has gotten into you? I am appalled and shocked by your behavior."

Lily rolled her eyes but turned slightly red.

James tossed Natalia a wet cloth. "Well, are you going to help us, or not?" he complained. "My back's starting to ache."

"But I didn't do anything!" said Natalia, grinning. "Why should I stay to help? I've been all around the castle."

"Did you happen to bump into Remus?" asked Malia eagerly. "Oh, and Peter, because, er... I need help with my homework! That essay, the Charms one."

"Why don't you just ask Lily?" said James. Malia looked sheepish.

"Well, no offense to Lily... but she uses really big words and is less patient with me," she said hesitantly. Natalia laughed as she took the wet cloth. She locked eyes with Sirius for a brief moment, and for that fleeting moment Sirius thought something had passed over her eyes, but he couldn't be sure. A split second later, she was all laughs and parked on the floor.

"Move aside, Sirius, I've got to save your sorry arses," she grinned, pushing the boy to the floor. She seemed to have no recollection of what had happened earlier that morning, and if she wasn't going to bring it up, then neither was Sirius. Natalia pressed the cloth to the floor, singing in a loud voice,

"_I've got a multi, multi, multi, multi, multipurpose broom! It sweeps, it cleans, it flies, it soars - from beneath rugs to sandy shores, I've got a multi, multi, multi, multi, multipurpose broom! It's brown, it's firm, and it's made of wood - from..._"

"I blame you, James," muttered Lily as Natalia continued to sing noisily. Lily groaned audibly as James merely grinned and began to join Natalia in her singing parade. Lily turned around to look at Malia, and was relieved to see that the girl also looked as though her eardrums were about to pop at any moment.

"_Multi, multi, multi, multi, multipurpose, multipurpose, oh I've got a multi, multi, multi, multi, multipurpose brooooom!_ One more time, Potter!" chanted Natalia, before immediately singing back into the chorus.

"If you must sing, why don't you sing a Christmas carol, for pity's sake!" said Sirius, grinning. Natalia stopped singing, and smiled widely. Her gray eyes sparkled.

"If you insist," she said, before bursting into full sound.

"GOD REST YE MERRY HIPPOGRIFFS..."

James and Sirius joined her.

"Thank you, Natalia," said Lily grimly. "I would have never known it was possible to butcher the song as horridly as you have."

"Why thank you, Lily," grinned Natalia. "I do try. It is my great goal to butcher every Christmas carol I know before the end of Christmas Eve."

"Well, you've got ten hours," said Malia, glancing at the large hourglass in the Great Hall.

"Oh no!" gasped Natalia, splashing her wet cloth all over the floor. "I haven't much time! OH CHRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE..."

"Oh please, God no..." Lily suddenly wished that she had not flung that fistful of pudding at James. Professor McGonagall had no idea what type of cruel punishment she had just bestowed on her.

"HOW ARE THY LEAVES SO VIOLENT!"

"It's _verdant_, Nat!" snapped Lily before she could stop herself.

"Oh. Oops."

* * *

"Happy Christmas!" Natalia pounced on the boys' dormitories. "Wake up you lazy bums!"

"This is the boys' dorms! What are you doing here?" Sirius muttered as he rolled over, hitting the floor as he did so. He grunted in pain as his forehead made contact with his bedside table.

"I don't know, the stairs let me," Natalia shrugged. "Get up off the floor, you great git!"

"If you read _Hogwarts: A History_ you would have known that girls are more trustworthy that boys," Lily rolled her eyes as she walked into the room. "It's a really good read, you know." She frowned at the array of dirty clothing that hung from their four-poster beds and the socks that littered the ground. Honestly, boys couldn't even keep their room clean for five minutes, even with house elves cleaning the dorms everyday.

"Wake up!" Natalia said, nudging James. "Are you mad?" whined James, squinting his eyes. "It's got to be at least six in the morning!"

"On the contrary, it's actually five," said Lily, checking James' alarm. She yawned, using the long sleeve of her pale blue dressing gown to stifle it. However, Natalia betrayed no signs of tiredness as she hopped around the room, singing the Rumpelstiltskin chant.

"Oi, Sirius' got a huge pile of presents on his bed!" said Natalia merrily, running over to his bed, "Why don't we open a few?" She jumped on his bed, holding a rather large package with bright pink wrapping paper. Sirius did not reply, but snatched the blankets off his bed with amazing speed. Natalia slipped and fell off the opposite side of the bed, headfirst onto the floor. There was not sound for a long time. Startled, Sirius scrambled to his feet and ran over to her. Lily followed worriedly, while the rest preferred to seize this opportunity to slumber.

"Nat, are you alright?" said Sirius anxiously, all sleepiness forgotten. He shook her slightly. Slowly, Natalia opened her eyes. She blinked, looking around her. As soon as she guessed what had happened, she narrowed her eyes and scowled.

"You bloody git!" she snapped, "You're just lucky it's bloody Christmas, otherwise I'd bloody curse you into bloody oblivion!" She groaned as she rubbed the back of her head gently.

"Nat, are you alright?" asked Lily, looking at her carefully. Natalia didn't answer her, but furrowed her brow as though in deep thought. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers and bounced back on her feet.

"Presents!" she said, "Presents! Get up!" She glanced at the three sleeping masses. Grinning, she took out her wand. "Get up," she said, "before I turn you all into mutated toads with chicken feet!" She smiled in satisfaction as the boys quickly got up from their beds and ran downstairs. She used her wand to levitated each boys' presents down into the common room, just as she had done to Lily's, Malia's, and her own.

* * *

"Presents!" crowed Sirius as they gathered around the tree. "Beautiful, illustrious, presents! I got two more presents than you did, Nat!" He smirked in satisfaction at his ridiculously large pile of gifts.

"Just open the damn box, Rapunzel," she retorted. Sirius glared at her as he opened one of the packages. Everyone was silent as they crowded around to look at what he had received.

Natalia burst into fits of uncontrolled laughter, still laughing even as Sirius pushed her to one side.

"Body wash?" she sputtered, getting red in the face. "Who the hell gives you _body wash_?

"Well," said Malia. "The card is anonymous, and there are lipstick marks all over it... so..." She and Natalia shared amused looks.

"Fangirls!" James snickered, "Sirius' fangirls! Body wash, they probably want to help you rub it on." Everyone shared a hearty mocking laughter at Sirius' expense.

"Open the next gift, Sirius!" said Natalia mischievously, "I can't _wait_ to see what else you've got."

"Merlin," muttered Sirius, rubbing his arm. "Now I'm scared." He eyed the glittery packages warily.

"Not to worry, Black," said Natalia decidedly. "I'll do the honors for you." And before he could react, she tossed Malia a few packages and the two of them began to tear the gift apart at rapid speeds. To everyone's eternal amusement, they uncovered heart-shaped chocolates, teddy bears that made loud smooching sounds, rather expensive looking hair products, and small rubber tube-like things in which Natalia was unfamiliar with. If at all possible, the sight of those cracked the whole group up even more and made Sirius' eyes darken with embarrassment and rage.

"What are these?" she asked, holding one up. James howled with laughter while Sirius snatched it from her and threw the entire box into the fireplace.

"Bloody psychos, they are," he muttered, watching the box burn.

"What's it for, though?" persisted Natalia, looking confused. "What are they, portable test tubes?"

"Just open your own presents, for Merlin's sake!" snapped Sirius, trying hard to ignore the sniggering in the background.

Natalia's eyes sparkled with mirth. "Alright... shall we continue our Hogwarts tradition, Lily?"

Lily laughed. "Indeed, I think we should," she smiled widely. Simultaneously, the two of them began diving into their presents. The rest of them looked slightly surprised, but they soon joined. The next hour was spent with random yelling and cries of delight or disappointment.

"A grooming brush? Very funny, Prongs."

"We must be suave even in our most shaggy moments," James grinned at Remus. Malia gasped when she found a brand new silver camera in one of her packages, complete with a beautiful navy blue picture frame. Delicate embroideries were stitched around the frame, and in between the panes of glass was a small note that read, 'Happy Christmas, Remus.'

"Oh, thank you, Remus!" she squealed, jumping up and giving Remus a tight hug. Remus seemed shocked, but not unpleasantly so as he returned the hug gently.

"You're welcome, Malia," he said, getting slightly embarrassed at the amused looks his friends were giving him. After exchanging looks, each of them got back to their gifts. Natalia was parading the Muggle book Lily had given her, loudly reading out excerpts from it.

"Oh my - James," breathed Lily as she lifted a shimmering necklace from a velvet box. "This isn't the one we saw at Harrods, is it?"

"It might have been," shrugged James, grinning.

"But James, it was four hundred pounds," Lily persisted, watching as the pendant necklace dangled and caught the light.

"Oh hush, Lily, don't make him change his mind," teased Natalia, closing her book. "That's about eighty Galleons you're holding in your hand, Lily. Don't throw it in the fire like Sirius did with his test tubes."

"Merlin, Nat, what did you get me?" groaned Remus, heaving the package, "it probably weighs as much as a troll." His eyes widened when he saw that the gift Natalia gave him was filled with all sorts of Muggle sweets.

"I managed to get you a brilliant deal, Remus!" said Natalia happily. "The man at the store said he'd give me all I wanted for two Galleons!"

"You mean pounds, don't you?" asked Malia, noticing the variant Muggle brands on the sweets, but Natalia shook her head.

"He said he'd never seen anything like it." She grinned proudly. "And he let me take all I wanted! I even got some for you, Sirius, along with that runes textbook."

"Hooray," said Sirius sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he flipped through the book. Peter looked sulky as he held up a jumper he had received from his family.

"It's a size too small for me," he said in response to the questioning looks. "And Mum writes that she won't be proud of me unless I get at least six N.E.W.T.s next year."

"Ooh, harsh, mate," commented Natalia sympathetically. "Here, have some of Sirius' candy."

"Those are my sweets, though!"

"Oh please, Sirius, who needs it more? An unappreciated son with a tight jumper, or a boy with body wash to please him? Here you go, Peter," she said cheerfully. "It's the least I can do after my present to you accidentally went up into flames."

Peter seemed reluctant to take the sweets, however. "It's - it's okay, Nat," he said. "Sirius can have them, after all, they were his in the first place." Sirius beamed as he took back his box of delectable chocolates.

Natalia shrugged. "Fine," she said, flipping a couple of pages in her book. "For as the prince did say, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair!' " She eyed Sirius' dark hair mischievously. Sirius glared at her, his hand already in his back pocket.

"Don't even think about it, Lynx," he said.

"Think about what?" she asked innocently. "I'm going down to breakfast. I want to test out this Deluxe Itching Powder James gave me," she added, grinning. "So if none of you want itchy bottoms for the rest of the day, I suggest you come down with me right now."

"You gave her _what?_"

"It was either that or the Colored Tongues!" protested James. "Come on, Lily, you have to say that the Itching Powder was safer."

"Leave it to a man to shop for presents," scoffed Lily, rising from the confetti of torn up wrapping paper. James winked at her.

"Aw, you like the necklace though, don't you?" he grinned, taking the jewelry from Lily's palm and coupling the clasps around her neck. "I think I deserve some credit there."

"We'll see," Lily said doubtfully. "After we get through breakfast with Nat's Itching Powder."

"Oi, where're you lot?" came a call. "Get down here - I want to put Itching Powder in Professor McGrognon's chair!" James grinned and turned to Sirius. He saw that Sirius had a small box in his hand.

"What's that?" he asked. "Another present from Robertson?"

Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but Natalia unintentionally beat him to it as she shouted from outside the portrait hole,

"Get your sorry arses over here before I put Itching Powder in your food!"

None of them wasted any time joining her. They had had that experience before, and it was not pleasant.

* * *

"I have never, in all my years at Hogwarts, seen a professor trying to scratch the roof of his mouth," remarked Remus as they walked back to the common room. "Not the most refined thing in the world."

"Or when he used his fork," nodded James soberly, "It'll be bleeding for hours."

* * *

By the time he was admitted into the common room that evening, Sirius was thoroughly exhausted and paused to catch his breath. He noticed that someone was sleeping on the couch, and to no one's surprise, it was Natalia. Pieces of parchment cluttered the table, and from the way she was positioned on the couch, it seemed as though she had unintentionally fallen asleep. Typical. Natalia always fell asleep when she was doing homework alone.

Suddenly, while watching her, an idea sparked in Sirius' mind. He turned sharply, grunting loudly when he walked into a wall. Glad that Natalia was not awake to witness that, he darted up the dorms. When he returned, he had a small navy blue box (and his cloak) in his hand. He placed the small box on the armrest beside Natalia's head and grinned to himself in satisfaction.

Actually, it was a miracle that Madam Armilla finally decided to sell it to him. He decided to use this expensive bracelet to blackmail Natalia if he should ever need her to help him with his runes homework again. _Which, you know, was always._

His gaze rose, and found that mistletoe was dangling above her slumbering head.

Sirius looked thoughtful. On one hand, kissing someone underneath the mistletoe was traditional, but on the other, he wasn't entirely sure about that traditional if the person happened to be asleep. Checking for traps, he took a couple of steps in each direction. He was free to move anywhere, and nothing odd sprung onto his face, like the ones Peeves made up.

_Aren't you practically with Louisa, anyway?_ asked a voice inside his head. Sirius shook his head furiously. True, he had occasional "Louisa lapses", but that didn't mean they were _together_. He was a free man, just like he always was. He was free to do anything he wanted. And with that being said, he knelt down to Natalia's level and looked at her carefully. Her breathing was steady and calm, and her eyelids remained closed and still. Driving the fact that it was traditional to kiss someone underneath the mistletoe into his head, he bent his head even lower and met Natalia's lips.

Her lips were soft, just like that time she kissed him on Christmas Eve. They were cool to the touch, just as they had been before. Sirius could have sworn he felt her lips part slightly, but he couldn't be too sure, because just at that moment, there came a voice,

"Padfoot, what are you doing?"

* * *

_Malia did a brilliant job on her essay_, thought Natalia to herself, _The essay's almost like a poem_. She never knew that Malia had such a rhythmical way with words. The sentences, though making perfect sense, sang out to her like a lullaby, and pretty soon, she had snuggled against the couch and fell asleep. Soon, dreams of tantalizing Pumpkin Pastries filled her mind.

Until one of the Pumpkin Pastries grunted. _Grunted? Since when do pastries grunt?_ Natalia asked in her dream, and involuntarily, she woke up. Her eyes darted around the common room, frowning at the fact that there were no Pumpkin Pastries to be seen. Neither were there any people. Natalia must've accidentally woken up. She shrugged to herself and tried to return to her lovely dream. That is, until a shadow was cast upon the warm glow of the hearth. She ignored the shadow.

_They're lucky it's Christmas - if it were any other day, I'd hex them for blocking out my light._

The Shadow stayed for quite a while, long enough that Natalia had gotten used to it and nearly fell back asleep. In fact, she would've succeeded had not two lips suddenly pressed against her own. She parted her mouth and progressed to grabbing her wand and hexing the daylights out of that smarmy git had she not heard one, single phrase.

"Padfoot, what are you doing?"

_... Sirius? Argh! Cooties!_

* * *

"What are you doing, Padfoot?" came a voice that was directly behind him. Slowly, Sirius turned around. James raised his eyebrows, as though asking, 'Did you just do what I think you just did?'

"There was mistletoe!" said Sirius, knowing he couldn't deny it, "and - and you know what mistletoes are like, nowadays, they're hexed!"

James' expression did not change. "Right, Padfoot," said James skeptically. However, he didn't say anything else. "Well, you coming?" he asked, changing the topic. Without a second to waste, Sirius nodded his head.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm coming." He was grateful James decided not to press any further. Sirius grabbed his cloak, and with a brief glance at the sleeping girl, he and James disappeared out of the common room. _At least she wasn't awake_, thought Sirius to himself. But he was dead wrong.

"What are you doing, Padfoot?"

Natalia immediately tried to make sure she looked asleep. She glanced around the scene through veiled eyelashes.

"There was mistletoe!" a voice she recognized as Sirius protested, and instinctively, Natalia looked up. He was right. Now, why would Natalia do such a stupid thing and fall asleep underneath mistletoe? But luckily she was - at least she knew that Sirius wouldn't do such a thing as to kiss her without reason. Natalia felt something droop in her stomach, and ignored the feeling. Soon, after a few more exchanges between Sirius and the voice of James, she heard the portrait hole swing closed.

_Better stay asleep for a bit longer_, she thought, feeling slightly dizzy from everything that had just happened, _just in case_. Her mind was buzzing with confusion. She shut her eyes tightly; _It must've been my imagination_. She was going absolutely loony. Natalia kept chanting this to herself until she fell asleep again.

* * *

By the time she woke up, she was firmly convinced that everything that had happened had just been a horribly bewildering dream. Again, she had that drooping feeling in her stomach. "Stop that," she scolded to herself. "It's bad enough that I didn't have dinner yet!" And as if on cue, the droopy feeling changed into a growling sound.

"I'm starving!" she said aloud, yawning and getting up from the sofa. As she was stretching, she spotted a small box lying beside where her head had lain. She picked it up, examining it curiously. She was just about to open it, except her stomach had growled again at that very second. Hunger conquered curiosity, so she slipped the box into her bag, before piling her parchment, quill, and inkbottle in along with it. Quickly returning the essays to their rightful owners, she threw her book bag onto her bed and darted downstairs, just in time for dinner. A crowd of laughing, pink-cheeked people joined her halfway through.

"Oi, where were you lot?" Natalia demanded, "What're you guilty of?"

"We," said Malia proudly, "built the finest Elvis Presley snowman anyone has ever seen." She showed Natalia a snapshot of the frozen superstar.

"Yeah, but that was before we gave him a nose job," snickered James, and then we won with our dragon." Remus chuckled at the memory, while Peter began helping himself to heavy portions of the Christmas feast.

"That was cheating!" snapped Lily. "The bet is called off!"

"Why, Lily?" said James, grinning. "Sore because you lost?"

"As if!"

"Aw, now I feel left out," complained Natalia, frowning, "What's this bet?"

"Never you mind," said Lily, laughing. "It's punishment for your troublemaking ways."

"Punishment on Christmas? That's absolutely uncalled for!" Natalia gasped, "Torture! Oi, I was eating that!" she said when she saw Sirius taking something from a plate. Sirius thrust the plate at Natalia.

"Fine," he muttered, not making eye contact. She frowned at him, before glancing at the plate.

"I was just joking, honestly," she said, giving him a strange look. "I can't eat an entire turkey." Sirius shrugged, still behaving oddly.

"Then allow me to help," said James, grinning as he grabbed a drumstick and drenched the meat in gravy. He licked his lips in anticipation and began eating with horrendous manners.

Lily made a face at James.

James caught her look and handed her the gravy, grinning innocently. His act of pure ignorance made Lily roll her eyes. She noticed a semi-translucent being floating around the Gryffindor table, looking wistfully at the food. Natalia noticed it too.

"Oi, Headless Nick!" she called, spitting out a mouthful of mashed potatoes, "Grab a seat, mate, there's plenty of food!"

The ghost seemed somewhat sulky, but he floated over. "If you don't remember," he said, sounding slightly cold, "ghosts don't eat."

"Have a drink then, won't you?" said Natalia cheerfully, unaware that she had offended the ghost, "Give in to the Christmas spirit."

"We can't drink, either," Nearly Headless Nick said.

Natalia blinked. "Then what _can_ you do?" she asked. Lily groaned inwardly.

"Well, I suppose we can't do a whole lot of things," said the ghost icily, "If you think about it, ghosts can't drink, eat, lose weight, relieve one's self -"

"Alright, alright," interrupted Sirius. "We get the point. Merlin, no need to get into the details during dinner," he muttered, and Natalia snorted with laughter.

"Black," she grinned. "I dare you to mix cranberry sauce into eggnog and drink the entire vat."

Sirius stared at her in disbelief. Her eyes sparkled mischievously, with pure glee and keenness. Nodding, he slowly grinned back.

"You're on," he said. "Oi, Nick, toss that cranberry sauce with me, won't you?"

Still properly offended, Nearly Headless Nick merely floated away at the question. Sirius rolled his eyes and grabbed the cranberry sauce himself. The rest of the dinner was passed with increasingly disgusting dares of combining different foods.

"I dare you to drench the mashed potatoes in eggnog, then pumpkin juice, and eat them with rice pudding!"

"God, Nat, where do you come up with this stuff?"

"Imagination, my dear Lily. Imagination."

When Natalia made Sirius pour a gravy and jelly mixture on the ground and lick it up, Lily lost her appetite altogether.

"Ew, I can't believe you did that!"

"Believe it, Lynx. For your turn, you're going to eat half a pound of turkey soaked in..."

* * *

"It's too bad Christmas is over," sighed Malia as the three girls gathered around Natalia's and Lily's dorm. As everyone in the dorm except for Lily and Natalia had gone home for the holidays, privacy was a bonus.

"Not really," yawned Natalia, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "We've still got a couple more minutes until midnight."

"I can't believe you're tired already, Nat," laughed Lily. "I would've thought that you'd be bouncing on the beds, high on sugary sweets." Both she and Malia were sitting, cross-legged on the floor.

Natalia grinned and flopped backwards onto her bed. "Don't remind me," she said. "My stomach still hurts from dinner. I can't believe I let Sirius talk me into eating a hairball Filch's cat left on the ground," she muttered, shuddering.

Malia giggled. "Sirius is a bit of an idiot," she said. "I don't really see what Shara sees in him."

"Other than aristocratically handsome looks?" Lily asked, laughing. "Yes, even I have to admit that."

"Or the fact that he's clever and passes every class with flying colors," added Malia sarcastically. "Honestly, Shara ought to have better taste."

"Don't let your boyfriends hear you talking about him like that," Natalia said, yawning, "They might murder the bloke."

Lily laughed, but Malia turned pink. "I don't have a boyfriend," she protested. "What do I need to worry about?"

"Dunno," grinned Natalia, turning over slightly, "I guess you don't have anything to worry about."

"That's right," said Malia affirmatively. "I don't."

"Hey, Nat, you haven't told us what you think about Sirius!" said Lily suddenly, turning to her best friend. "What do you think about him?"

"I think he's a git," came the reply. Lily frowned at her remark.

"No, really, Nat," she persisted, "What do you think of Sirius?"

No one answered her question. Lily stood up and looked over at Natalia. She found the girl had fallen fast asleep, her breathing slow and even. Her lips were curved up in a small smile, just as it always was. Lily smiled as well.

"She fell asleep," she said to Malia. "I suppose our _girl-talk_ proved to be too much for her."

Malia laughed, but quietly, lest she woke up Natalia. "I think we should all go to bed," she said, yawning herself, "It's been a long day."

"Happy Christmas, Malia," said Lily softly, smiling. Malia nodded.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Lily," she said, before going out of the room and returning to her own half-empty dormitory.

**Chapter End Notes: **Hope you all liked that little bit 'o kissin' XD I thought it'd only be fair if we let in Sirius and Nat have a bit of their own romantic fun, since all their pals are dating each other. Anyway, let me know what you think. I thrive on reviews.

Luv,

ArcanusRose


	9. Chapter Nine

**A/N: **Happy New Year's (well at least at Hogwarts)! I was quite tired after writing the last chapter and decided to take a break before going on my writing marathon. Chapter Ten will follow very quickly after this one's finished.

**CHAPTER NINE:**

**Dangerous Substances (and Other Things That Aggravate McGonagall)**

"I still think it's grossly unfair that we have to start classes the day after New Year's," Natalia grumbled as she sat down for breakfast. "I mean, we barely got to celebrate!"

"You're just sulky because you didn't do all your homework yet," said Lily, briskly pouring herself a glass of cold milk. "Which reminds me, have you finished your Charms essay? It's due on Thursday, you know. You're lucky Professor Flitwick didn't make it due for today."

"It's Sirius' fault! He threw my essay into the hearth!"

"I was trying to make a bonfire!"

"You can't make a bonfire in the Gryffindor common room, you idiot!"

Sirius tried to look dignified, but Natalia threw a bit of sausage at him and marred his attempt.

"What do we have for homework, anyway?" asked Natalia as Sirius glowered at her. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Well, there's nothing for Potions," said Remus.

"Thank Merlin for Slughorn," Peter breathed. "I don't think I could've handled it on top of Flitwick's essay, and that Astronomy star chart."

"What about History of Magic?" asked Natalia. "You said there wasn't, right?" She turned to Sirius, who shared every one of her classes. He smirked.

"Actually, there was this little bit of homework..." he began slowly, enjoying himself as he saw her eyes widen.

"_What?_ You told me there wasn't!"

"I must've forgotten. You would have known if you hadn't fallen asleep during class again..."

"Sirius! You're going to get more than sausages to the face this time!"

"Aw, come on, Lynx, it's just a paper explaining the Goblin Revolution -" Lily's lips twitched for an instant when she saw that Sirius hair had become extremely frizzy and had taken on a bright orange color. Malia laughed wholeheartedly, but her smile dropped a notch when she saw a group of girls in short skirts strut into the Great Hall. The girl with luxurious brown curls turned her head ever so slightly and shot Malia an icy stare.

"Hullo, Shara! Do you like what I've down with Sirius' hair?" Natalia called, running for the group of girls. She grinned at them, enjoying their identically horrified expressions. She seemed not to notice that Sirius was silently advancing towards her with his wand, until she suddenly spun around. In a split second, Natalia's wand was poking into Sirius' neck, and she was raising her eyebrow in amusement.

"How do you do that?" muttered Sirius, sounding miffed.

"Reflexes," Natalia grinned, before turning Sirius' afro back to his regular dark, elegant hairstyle that drove all of Barclay's gang of girls wild.

"Did you get my gift, Sirius?" one girl cried out, giggling madly.

"Or more importantly," Barclay stepped in, winking, "Did you get mine?"

"Oh, he got it, Shara," said Natalia cheerfully. "But I must say, it's a horrible gift. I mean, who really gives people rubber test tubes for Christmas -" Sirius dragged her away, scarlet-faced, before Natalia had a chance to finish her sentence.

"Nat, one day you've got to learn when to shut your mouth," he muttered as they walked to the Charms classroom.

"But life isn't half as exciting when you do," protested Natalia. And in a way, Sirius had to admit she was right, even if she had already been cornered by Slytherins countless times, made enemies with the most popular girls in Gryffindor, had a homicidal mother, and was blacklisted by every library and bookstore she had stepped into. It made Sirius wonder how she ever survived life.

* * *

"_Because I'm free... Nothing's worrying me._"

"Sing it again, Beauregard. I'm determined to get the song stuck in my head this time," said Natalia.

"We're supposed to be practicing our Anti-Freezing Charms, if you haven't forgotten," scolded Lily, "Nat, stop horsing around!"

"Just wait," coaxed Natalia, before turning back to Malia. "Sing it again."

Malia flushed slightly red, but she still opened her mouth and sang the desired song. "_Raindrops keep falling on my head, just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed... nothin' seems to_ -"

"Wait," interrupted Natalia. "What do raindrops have anything to do with oversized feet?"

Malia shrugged. Lily jabbed Natalia with her wand, glaring at her slightly.

"Do your Anti-Freezing Charm!" she insisted.

"But there's no point, you see," Natalia said, grinning. "My ice cube's already melted into a puddle."

Lily handed her another ice cube, and she made a face. She aimed her wand at the cube and voiced a triumphant gloat when she was able to perform the charm perfectly. She whooped and jumped in the air, shouting, "Haha! In your face, Lily!" However, she accidentally slipped on the anti-frozen ice cube and landed on the floor. Lily laughed at her stunned face.

"In my face, indeed," she grinned, prodding Natalia with her wand.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall!" sang Natalia to the hard-faced professor sitting at her desk. "Did you have a nice holiday?"

"It appears as if you have, Miss Lynx," said Professor McGonagall sternly, taking a sip from her teacup. "But I hope you haven't forgotten to do your homework in all your merrymaking."

Natalia's grinning face dropped. "Homework?" she repeated dumbly.

Professor McGonagall appeared to resist the urge to transfigure the girl's ears into bat ears so she would listen better. She contented herself by rolling her eyes tiredly, at the very least. "The homework, Miss Lynx," she said, "was to practice transfiguring a cup of tea into another beverage." Sirius snorted with laughter as he took his seat.

Natalia blinked, still standing in front of McGonagall's desk. "Well," she finally said, "let's give it a go, shall we?" And without missing a beat, Natalia had whipped out her wand and turned the professor's cup of hot Earl Grey into red wine. She winked.

"I think I've got it all set, don't I, Professor?" she grinned. Professor McGonagall slowly raised the teacup to her lips.

"Very good, Lynx," she said approvingly, putting the teacup down. "Possibly one of the finest transfigured wines I've ever tasted. Take your seat," she said, just before the final bell rung and signaled the start of class.

"Nice save," Sirius whispered to Natalia.

"Sirius!"

Sirius turned his head at the sharp whisper. He saw a girl with brown hair and bright blue eyes, smiling widely at him. He grinned back at her.

"You're going out with Louisa."

"Since when was I going out with Louisa?"

"Since she's been bragging about it in the common room," shrugged Natalia. "You should've seen Shara's face yesterday as she came back from her holiday."

Sirius looked flabbergasted. "What? I'm not going out with her!" he exclaimed, "It's just a couple of dates, it doesn't mean anything!"

"Mr. Black, would you kindly stop chatting with Miss Lynx and continue with your work before I take away house points and give you a detention," said Professor McGonagall, looking at the pair with strict eyes.

"Yeah, Sirius, stop chatting with me," Natalia chimed in, grinning. "Honestly, I can't concentrate with your great mouth right in my ear."

"I would suggest you get back to work as well, Miss Lynx," said McGonagall. "Otherwise you will share a detention with Mr. Black." Sirius grinned haughtily at Natalia's fallen expression.

"Ha ha," he said quietly, transfiguring his glass of tea into a liquid that looked suspiciously like sewage water.

"Ha ha yourself, git," retorted Natalia, turning her glass into fruit juice.

"I wouldn't make fun of me, Nat," Sirius warned, holding his glass. "This water isn't very sanitary, and it could very well slip from my fingers."

"And mine," said Natalia, transfiguring her glass again, "can eat through your clothes." She held her glass up, revealing an odd, lime-green liquid. It was bubbling.

"Oh?" challenged Sirius, turning his sewage water into a red liquid that spurted flames, "what about now?"

Natalia snorted. "Child's play," she grinned, now holding up dangerous-looking black water, with putrid smoke rising from the glass. Sirius stared at it.

"What is that, anyway?"

"Dunno." Natalia shrugged. "Would you like to be the first to try it?" She threatened to dip the contents of the glass onto him. He backed away.

"I'm warning you, Natalia Lynx, you touch me with that - I'll make sure you'll never live to see day again -"

"What?" asked Natalia in shock. "Sirius Black is afraid? Oughtn't you live up to your Gryffindor house? For shame, Sirius," she grinned, still threatening to tip the glass. "Perhaps you belong in Hufflepuff after all..."

"Oi! At least Hufflepuff is better than Slytherin!"

"Yes, but then you'd have to share your glory with Irving, now wouldn't you?" laughed Natlaia. While laughing, her hand unintentionally shook and tipped the glass a bit too far. Luckily, Sirius was able to move out of the way before the mysterious black substance dripped and splattered on the ground. Natalia's eyes widened.

"Blimey, what's that?" she asked, and Sirius bent down to examine it as well.

"I don't know," he said, watching the black liquid squirm around on the floor, "but that bloody thing nearly touched me! Thanks a lot, Lynx."

"It's growing!" And sure enough, the strange black substance was getting bigger and bigger, until it was twice its original size. Even then, the puddle continued to grow, burbling and squirming. Natalia tugged the back of Lily's collar.

"What is it?" asked Lily impatiently, turning around. When she saw the black puddle, she needed no further explanation as to why Natalia had bothered her. It had caught James' attention too, and he gawked at the liquid, which had now grown to almost half of Natalia's height. Finally, the black liquid stopped squirming, and it lay silently on the ground.

"What should we do?" asked Sirius.

"I'll tell you what we should do," said Lily firmly. "We're going to get Professor McGonagall." For once, nobody argued. While Lily walked to the front of the classroom, Natalia crouched down to the floor and looked at the puddle curiously. It was so black - she could have mistaken it as a hole.

"I wonder what happens if we poked it," she said aloud, and prodded the black puddle with her wand. Suddenly, everything happened so fast it was a blur. Almost immediately after Natalia had prodded it gently with her wand, the black puddle became some sort of sucking machine. It swept her off her feet and dragged her into itself, causing her to drop her wand into the hole and hang onto dear life onto the ledge where the puddle ended and floor met.

"Holy - Nat, hold on!" shouted Sirius over the loud wind noise the hole made, and grabbed Natalia's hand firmly.

"Let go you git!" Natalia cried, "I've got to go get my bloody wand!"

"Are you mad?"

"Just let me down a little bit... it's not completely bottomless, you see... I can feel my wand..."

"Nat, you're a bloody lunatic!"

"Got it! Pull me back up, Black!"

James tugged Sirius back for extra strength and support, and together, the two of them managed to overcome the hole's suction power and haul Natalia to safety. Remus quickly covered the hole with a perfectly sized ball he had transfigured out of his desk.

"Note to self: Never poke strange squirming black liquids with wand," Natalia panted as she lay on the floor, her fingers tightly curled around her almost-lost wand. People had gathered around the three, staring at them and looking completely dumbfounded as to what had happened.

"Bloody - Morgana," James grunted. "What the hell was that?"

"Lynx!" came an angry shout, and Natalia swore under her breath. She got up, and came face to face with Professor McGonagall. Her face was dark with rage and she was shaking with fury. Lily stood beside her, with a sincerely apologetic look on her face.

"What do you think you were doing?" she barked. "Abusing your magic and creating all sorts of ludicrous and dangerous substances! Twenty points from Gryffindor for your complete lack of responsibility and detention tonight!" She turned to Sirius, who desperately tried to look innocent. "You," she snapped at the guilty boy, "for your equally irresponsible disregard for my specific instructions, you will be joining Lynx in detention. Seven o'clock, sharp."

Natalia and Sirius looked at each other - they had gotten off unreasonably easy after nearly turning the Transfiguration classroom into a black hole. Just then, the bell rang, and everyone quickly gathered their things and shuffled out the door. However, just as Natalia was about to leave the classroom, she caught sight of Professor McGonagall whipping out her wand and remove Remus' ball. She dissolved the black puddle as easily as she may have transfigured a toothpick into a needle.

Natalia must've imagined it, but she could have almost sworn that she heard Professor McGonagall was muttering to herself about what a brilliant piece of magic it was.

**Chapter End Notes: **Thank you all so so SO much for reading! I have to give most of the credit for this chapter to my former co-author, blueskies! I luv you, Jennifer!

Review away!

Luv,

ArcanusRose


	10. Chapter Ten

**_IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE READ!_**

**_Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that my work has once again been plagiarised. I would like to remind all of you once again that NONE of the works published on ANY other sites is mine. I have ONE other unedited, very old copy of this posted under the name of my former co-writer, which I have abandoned, under another name. I cannot recall the site I posted this copy on, so please, please, please let me know if you find it! I have NOT posted this on MuggleNet Fanfiction, Harry Potter Fanfiction, or Fiction Alley, all of which I have found my story on. _**

**_PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ANY MORE PLAGIARISM OF THIS STORY!_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TEN:**

**Meeting Leona**

"How long do we have to keep scrubbing the floor?" whined Natalia. "The black hole probably sucked up all the dust, anyway."

Sirius silently agreed. They had been cleaning for two hours now. "Maybe McGonagall forgot about us," he said.

"Does that mean we can go?" asked Natalia hopefully. Sirius shrugged, and she groaned. She glanced at the sparkling floor. "That's it," Natalia declared. "I'm going back to the common room. I think a floor is clean enough when I can see myself in it."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius, dropping his rag. "I'm getting out of here."

"Quickly, before she finds out," said Natalia, and as soon as she made the rags disappear, she and Sirius sailed out the door. It was unfortunate that they happened to bump right into Peeves at this time. His poltergeist face cackled with glee.

"Students out of bed are we?" he sang, grinning at their guilty faces. "Ought to inform the caretaker, I should."

"We're not breaking the rules!" protested Natalia defiantly. "We just got dismissed from detention."

"Really?" said Peeves, not looking too perturbed. "Well, we'll just see what the caretaker has to say about that. FILCH!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Sirius grabbed Natalia by the hand and they sprung into a mad dash. Along the way, they saw a mangy cat with large eyes, piercing through them.  
"Filthy troublemakers... we'll get them this time..." came a raspy voice, and Natalia and Sirius sprinted the other way.

"Students shouldn't be out of bed," said Peeves cheerfully, with an armful of water balloons, "Bombs away!" The two of them dodged the incoming ammo that came their way. As they ran, Natalia noticed something, something that she had never noticed before. But never mind that now.

"Quick, in here!" she motioned him into an old broom closet she had suddenly found. It was as if it had suddenly appeared out of the wall, but Natalia had no time to think. The door closed firmly as they hid, adrenaline pounding in their skulls. Moments passed, both unaware that they had been holding their breaths. They looked at each other silently, grinning stupidly.

"Why do we always find ourselves in broom closets?" Natalia asked aloud, "It's getting quite repetitive."

"Getting ideas, Lynx?" Sirius smirked suggestively. He groaned when Natalia gave him a hard whack to the arm.

"Let's get out of here before Sirius becomes a drunken monkey again," teased Natalia as she opened the broom closet door and walked out, with Sirius following behind. Luckily, the two of them managed to enter the common room without walking into Filch or Peeves.

Lily looked up from her work and stared at them when they came back.

"What happened to you two?" she asked, looking at their dripping wet forms.

"Oh, you know," said Natalia carelessly. "Skiving detention, Peeves shooting water balloons at us, Filch on the prowl, locking ourselves in a broom closet... the usual."

* * *

"Hullo, Professor!" said Pippi cheerfully that Wednesday morning. "How were your holidays? I had an ace time, I did; Daddy brought home twenty kilos of shrimp and we spent all holiday trying to breed them. Of course, Mangy the Cat accidentally ate half of them and we only produced half of the shrimps we could have."

"That's... interesting..." said Professor Deboale, who was probably crestfallen that the cat couldn't have eaten Pippi as well.

"But I missed you too, Professor," said Pippi, batting her eyelashes in a most disturbing way. Sirius, James and the others snickered, watching as Deboale's face turned deep red with embarrassment.

"Well - Welcome back, class," said Deboale, deciding to ignore Pippi for the moment, "I hope you had a nice holiday." The second-year chirped with mild excitement, and the class soon filled up with noise as the students proceeded to explain their holidays to each other with great detail. Pippi was one of them.

"And we had this great fishing boat, with loads of pretty, pink shrimp - I swear, I was nearly eaten by the Loch Ness monster, it was smaller than I expected - and then, Dad made one of the shrimps grow to be as big as the entire boat, and we sank -"

"I take it this isn't the first time we've called Nat a nutter," murmured Remus, chuckling. Malia looked greatly confused.

"Why is she disrupting the class?" she asked, it being the first time she had witnessed the great Pippi Longstocking in action.

"Because she can," said Sirius, grinning widely. "And she does a splendid job of it."

"... Last time, we had a Boggart, and I should like to continue our studies -"

"Professor Deboale! I'm allergic to Boggarts! I've got a note from my Mummy, you see, and she greatly expresses that I should not be exposed to any more Boggarts due to my overactive imagination... Blimey, I think Mum's a bit on the barmy side, she even wrote that I'm spontaneous... I've never spawned an anus in my life..."  
And by the time class was dismissed, there was no mistaking the look on Deboale's face – he was sorely regretting ever getting up this morning.

* * *

"Have you finished your essay, yet?" asked Lily sharply at breakfast, "It's due today, you know."

"I know, I know," said Natalia, waving her best friend off. "And as a matter of fact, I did finish it."

"Good," said Lily with relief. "I'm just writing where I got my newspaper and other references from at the bottom of my parchment." The bibliography was nearly a third of the size of her essay, and that alone, was much longer than the required length.

"You should really calm down a bit, Lily," said Natalia. "It's our second last year, we should be enjoying it."

"I'll enjoy it when I've secured a good job for myself," quipped Lily. "Now where did I put that clipping..." she mumbled to herself, rummaging around the books in her bag. Natalia playfully rolled her eyes at Sirius when she heard Lily let out a quiet whoop, triumphantly fishing the newspaper from inside one of her books.

"Oi, Sirius, proofread my essay, would you?" she asked, grabbing her parchment from out of her bookbag and tossing it to Sirius.

"It's fine," said Sirius without looking at it. "Now leave me alone - I'm eating."

"I just want you to proofread it," she insisted, waving the essay in his face.

"Don't make me start another bonfire," he warned. The threat made Natalia stop waving it around as she had spent two hours on that essay, and was quite keen on not spending anymore. James chuckled slightly.

"Done!" sang Lily happily, glancing at the newspaper for a brief moment. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she began to read it. At the same time, Malia was furiously scribbling onto her parchment with last minute corrections. Peter seemed to be writing on a blank parchment, as though he had never started in the first place.

"What's wrong, Lily?" asked Natalia. "Did you misread a fact?"

"Huh?" Lily looked up, "oh - no, I didn't. It's nothing," she said quickly, flashing a smile. She placed the newspaper clipping in a safe spot so that she wouldn't lose it, and smiled again. "I was just reading another article on the newspaper," she answered. "Nothing's wrong."

Natalia looked at her quizzically, but shrugged and went back to her breakfast. "Remus, would _you_ like to proofread my essay?" she asked hopefully.

"As soon as I'm done proofreading my own," he replied, holding up his parchment of miniscule writing. Natalia stared at his essay.

"You blokes and your brains," she muttered. "And you call yourselves _Gryffindors_. Geekydors, more like," she added.

* * *

"Hello, Sirius," giggled Leona Park, a dark haired sixth year who looked extremely similar to Natalia, standing up from her desk and running over to Sirius just as he was entering the Ancient Runes classroom. She completely ignored the girl beside him and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a welcoming hug.

"Er, hello, Leona," said Sirius, awkwardly hugging her back. He could smell her lovely, strong perfume as she nuzzled her head into his neck. Leona shot Natalia a triumphant, but dirty look when Sirius couldn't see, as though gloating that she was the winner. Natlaia frowned at her, but did nothing more.

When Professor Cauden entered the classroom, all the students took their seats. "Something's wrong with Park," muttered Natalia as Professor Cauden sprung into another of his lectures. "She's such a bloody flirt."

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Sirius suddenly, his face darkening, "Nothing's wrong with her! And don't you dare talk about her like that, or I'll make sure you regret it."

Natalia opened her mouth, as if to question his suddenly odd behavior. In the end, Natalia closed her mouth and turned back to the professor. _Make sure I'll regret it?_ thought Natalia angrily as she furiously took notes, _Who the bloody hell does he think he is?_

"Oi, Lynx!" came a whisper. "Help a mate out, would you?" Sirius was grinning hopefully at her, waving a piece of blank parchment. Professor Cauden had exited the room with a blackboard full of runes already written.

She looked at him, trying to process the fact that he had threatened her not fifteen minutes ago and now he acted as if it never happened. She considered giving him a well-chosen hex.

"Nat?" asked Sirius again. His face was friendly and sincere, always with that hint of smug arrogance. His gray eyes were grinning at her.

Natalia put all angry thoughts at the back of her head and grinned back at Sirius, acting as if nothing had ever happened. There was no point in creating a show, she reasoned to herself, no sense in making a conflict.

"Sirius, it's amazing how you managed to pass four years of runes," she laughed. "How do you do it?"

"Because you do it for me," said Sirius. "Now help!"

"A Galleon a minute, mate," said Natalia, sticking out her hand. "Mind you, I'm charging you three Galleons already for even having this conversation."

"What? Come on, Nat..."

She laughed at Sirius.

Natalia liked to avoid having emotional confrontations whenever she could help it. Having these types of serious arguments made her think she could possibly lose a mate in the process, something she did not like to think about.

* * *

It was dinner, and the four Marauders and three girls were situated in their usual spots. There was James, with his usual mountain of food that he could always miraculously finish; Malia, with her vibrantly golden, bouncy hair; Sirius, with his sweltering good looks; Remus, with his gentle and tolerant disposition; Peter, with his darting eyes and great love for sweets and desserts; Natalia, with her laughter and happy aura; and lastly, there was Lily, with her shiny dark red hair and month-old newspaper.

"Lily, what are you doing?" laughed Natalia. "You already handed in your essay. I'm sure you'll get 100 on it, so why do you have that newspaper out again?"

"Because," came the very informative reply.

"Yeah, Lynx," said James mockingly. "Don't deny Lils of her intellectual entertainment. Eat your potatoes."

Natalia grumbled to herself as she picked up her fork and began to scoop mashed potatoes into her mouth as James had ordered her to. Malia laughed at her expression when she saw the girl wince.

"This is disgusting!" Natalia cringed, pushing back her potatoes. "Who put -" she bent her head to sniff it. "Ugh. Who put sour cream in the mashed potatoes?" she demanded. Her eyes flashed when she saw James and Sirius stifling their chortles.

"I don't get it," Remus said, frowning in confusion. "I like it when there's sour cream."

"_I_ don't," said Natalia, glaring at the two boys, "and Sirius knows perfectly well that I don't."

"You give me too much credit," objected Sirius. "How would I know?"

"Because of the time I accidentally spat it in Professor Bolive's face while he was walking by during dinner and it earned me a detention," retorted Natalia.

"Pity about that," agreed James, chuckling. "He was one of the better Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. Who knew he had a severe allergic reaction with sour cream?"

"If you don't want your potatoes, Nat, can I have them?" asked Peter. She nodded, looking at the potatoes with disgust.

"Dunno how anyone can eat that," she shuddered. "It's as bad as licking the floor."

Sirius snorted. "Maybe for you," he smirked, "but I'd rather have the sour cream."

"I bet if you were covered in sour cream," snickered James, "your fan girls would be tickled pink to lick it off you."

Natalia and Malia made mirrored gagging noises. "That's sick!" cried Malia. "That's completely gross!"

"My two dislikes rolled into one," said Natalia, grinning and looking disgusted at the same time. "Merlin, I'm going to sprout nightmares from that."

"But honestly," said James, laughing, "I bet they'd _love_ to lick it all off, Padfoot."

Sirius glared at him.

"Drunk monkey alert! Drunk monkey alert!" shouted Natalia. "Quick, contain it before it spreads!" She grabbed a spoon and, scooping mashed potatoes from Peter's plate, launched the sour creamed mush right between James' eyes. Two more were shot off in the general direction, and soon, James' glasses were covered in moist potatoes.

Natalia laughed at James. "Phew, that was a close one," she grinned, setting her spoon down. "A second longer, and we'd all be drunk monkeys." Sirius laughed with her as he watched James grab a napkin and clean his face and glasses. However, just before he could do anything more, Professor McGonagall walked past them, with a stern, warning look on her face, as though she knew what he was up to. She soon passed on, but James did not want to risk it. He contented himself with an icy glare.

"Oh no," breathed Lily, as though the world had suddenly turned upside-down. James turned his gaze from Natalia and looked at her amusedly.  
"What happened, Lily? Did you realize you missed a punctuation mark in your bibliography?"

**Chapter End Notes: **All right, I know the beginning Author's Note was a bit frantic, but who wouldn't be, if you went to MNFF and found a story titled 'Everything I Ever Wanted' by 'GinnyPotter123' posted on 'June 2nd, 2007'? Seriously, this is kind of scaring me now, because I'm being subjected to a stream of hate mail by angry readers who are convinced that I was copying and pasting because of a single post date. Ugh, it's horrifying how easily that can be changed, yet how many people it can fool. Please review. I'm in need of cheering up.

ArcanusRose


	11. Chapter Eleven

**A/N: **Thank you all so, so, so much for the encouraging reviews! It all really cheered me up! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my amazing readers!

**CHAPTER ELEVEN:**

**Hogsmeade**

"Thanks for, you know, inviting me to Hogsmeade," giggled Leona as she sat at a table in Madam Puddifoot's teashop. Sirius sat directly across from her, marveling at the horrendous job Madam Puddifoot did to hide the damage of her shop made months ago by him and the Marauders. Doilies were everywhere, plastered over the walls like ripped up wallpaper and frilly hearts cluttered around. Just five minutes ago, Sirius had found red and pink confetti in his hair from a trumpet-blowing Cupid portrait on the wall. Most irritating, indeed.

"Oh, it's no big deal," said Sirius carelessly, glancing at his teacup. "It's not even Valentine's Day. It's only the twelfth."

Two tables to the left of him, four people simultaneously smacked their foreheads in exasperation.

"Brilliant move, Padfoot," muttered Remus. "She's definitely feeling special now."

"Honestly, look at her face for once!" said Peter, groaning.

"How on _earth_ does he charm the ladies with this kind of attitude?" asked Malia, shaking her head.

"It must be his hair," Natalia said decidedly. "Just let me shave it off and see his luck then..."

"We can't be seen!" Remus protested, snatching her wand from out of her hands. "Low profile, remember?"

"I never knew you were so sneaky, Remus," grinned Natalia. "Have you decided to take on this role since Potter and Lily are out doing some Valentine's fun of their own?"

Remus rolled his eyes as a trumpet sounded. Peter grimaced at his confetti-filled tea.

"Anyway..." Leona leaned forward, batting her eyelashes. "Why don't we take a walk around Hogsmeade now?" She smiled slightly, a few strands of dark hair falling into her face.

"Look at the signs! This is classic from _Teen Witches_!" whispered Malia. "The batting eyes, making eye contact..." She gasped when Leona let out a small laugh and began prodding Sirius lightly with her foot. "The classic footsie maneuver! She is _so_ flirting with him, right there." Malia crossed her arms triumphantly.

Natalia stared at her.

"Sometimes I think that hanging around with Shara has got you barmy to the brain," she said frankly, causing Malia to blush and shrug.

"Actually, I read those on my own," she admitted. "It's... interesting."

Natalia laughed. "That's alright, Beauregard," she grinned, "I've got nothing against the secrets of seducing men, except for the fact that I don't know any," she added, looking thoughtful.

"Merlin! He's kicking back!" said Peter, pointing. The four of them stared as Sirius raised his eyebrows teasingly and gently kicked back, sprouting a giggle from Leona.

"Pictures, Malia," said Natalia, grinning mischievously, "We've got to get good dirt on him."

"Why?" Malia asked as she took out the small, magical camera necklace Remus had given her. She held it in her hands as the camera pendant quickly grew to the size of a normal camera.

Natalia groaned with disbelief.

"Don't you remember why we're spying in the first place? It was his damn idea that he took our panties and flagged them to the entire school! And what are you looking at?" Natalia snapped when she attracted the attention of a nearby couple. "Haven't you seen four people blackmailing a snogging couple?"

"It's fascinating how you can announce that and not feel the least embarrassed," Remus remarked as Malia began snapping images. The couple had quickly shrunk away from her glare and returned to their tea, scowling.

"Embarrassed about what?" asked Natalia, snorting. "As if I care what other people think."

"Lucky you," Malia muttered, wincing as she thought of her light pink underwear falling from the ceiling of the Great Hall two days ago.

"How many pictures have you taken?" Natalia asked when Malia sealed away her camera.

"Enough to give me nightmares."

Natalia seemed pleased at this response, and rose from her seat. "Come on, Malia, let's walk around Hogsmeade," she said. "I don't want to waste this trip spying on a couple of prats." She grabbed Malia's arm and snuck out of the teashop to avoid being seen.

Peter and Remus had identical annoyed looks as the girls disappeared. "Oh well," Remus shrugged, returning to his tea. "I guess it's just you and me, Peter."  
Almost immediately, the couple that Natalia had snapped at earlier snickered. They stared at both Remus and Peter with amused looks on their faces.

"What?" said Remus, dubious of their expressions.

"You two must be very happy together," said the girl plainly. "It's so nice to find such romance during Valentine's Day."

"_What?_" Peter and Remus both shouted at the top of their lungs, staring at each other with horrified faces, "We're not - we're not -"

"Oi, Moony, Wormtail!" Sirius said, looking at them surprised, "What're you lot doing here on Valentine's? I never knew you went out together!" He seemed unaware of the embarrassing wording of his last sentence.

"Oh, brilliant, Padfoot," Remus muttered as the couple tittered louder. "Remind me to shove a toad down your throat when we get back."

* * *

"So... Sirius," said Leona as she walked beside Sirius, "We've been going out for weeks now, haven't we?"

"I guess," Sirius shrugged, scratching his head. "But they're more like casual outings... we're not really going out, as in going steady." He grinned at Leona, who looked like she had been hit on the head with a club.

"Oh," she said, "really." Her voice was cold and distant.

"Are you all right?" asked Sirius, looking at her, concerned.

"Oi, Sirius!" Sirius turned around to the noise.

"I'm - I'm fine," Leona replied rigidly as Sirius ran over to the bouncy dark-haired girl who was waving at them. Leona narrowed her eyes and scowled before slowly walking over.

"Having a nice Valentine's?" grinned Natalia as Malia laughed, adjusting her hood as wet snow landed on her hair.

"What do you want, Lynx?" demanded Sirius, also grinning in good humor. Natalia smiled mischievously as she fanned what seemed to be developed photographs into his face.

"We're going to get you back for our panties ordeal," she said triumphantly. "We've got evidence of your filthy drunk monkeyness right here in our hands! Admit defeat, Black, and _maybe_ we won't post them around the school!" Sirius caught a glance of them, and recognized that they were taken earlier that day at Madam Puddifoot's.

He gave Natalia a pitiful look.

"Honestly, Lynx, is that all you've got? As if I care," he snorted, folding his arms. "I think you're slipping. Perhaps it's time to retire while you can still get a pension."  
Natalia looked indignant as she turned to Malia, who looked equally frustrated.

"He doesn't care?" Malia cried. "These are brilliant, rumor-mill sprouting pictures! This is sick stuff!" Coming from a girl who had known Shara Robertson since they were in diapers, Sirius' indifference to the pictures was quite a setback.

"He's obviously tricking us," said Natalia, side-glancing Sirius. "Reverse-psychology, I know it well. Countless times have I been fooled by this technique, and I do not intend to fall for it this time."

Sirius could only grin and shake his head as the girls plotted openly in front of his face. To be honest, there was no reverse psychology involved because he really couldn't care less. He glanced at the pictures that Natalia had given him and frowned at her pathetic attempt at revenge.

_Maybe she's the only who's doing the tricking_, he thought, before rolling his eyes and snorting at the idea.

"What are those?" Leona suddenly poked her head over his shoulder. Sirius could feel her leaning her head in as she tried to make sense of the photographs. A gasp from his left shoulder told Sirius what she had seen. He turned around, only to see Leona with tears in her eyes.

"How - how could you?" she said quietly, staring at the pair of girls. They weren't listening.

"- Maybe we could pants him in the Great Hall and have leeches poured over him..."

"We don't want to kill him, Nat!"

"What? It's not as though leeches suck blood or anything..."

"How could you!" Leona screamed, snapping the girls back to the situation in front of them. Natalia and Malia looked at each other, looking slightly ashamed. Leona glared at them through her tears, before sprinting away. Sirius watched her run.

"... Well..." said Malia. Natalia nodded in agreement, as if Malia had worded it perfectly.

Sirius suddenly turned around to face them. His face was dark and black with anger. "See what you've done?" he barked at them. "You've made her cry! Are you happy now? God, I didn't think you two could sink so low!"

Natalia seemed stunned for a moment, as if she were trying to figure out Sirius' sudden mood swing.

"Low? _Low?_ We wouldn't have taken these pictures if you weren't snogging the knickers off her!" Natalia retorted when she had regained her wits.

"It's Valentine's Day, for Merlin's sake! I can do whatever I damn well please! Now do something useful for a change, and get out of here! Leona!" Sirius ran after the fleeing girl.

Malia stood there, shocked, looking as though on the verge to cry. "Did we - did we do something wrong?" she asked in a small voice. The hate-filled look on Sirius' face reminded her of Shara when she had stood up to her.

"No, no we didn't, Malia," said Natalia assuredly. "Sirius is just a git. He'll be over it by dinnertime."

"Will you?"

"Of course I will," grinned Natalia cheerfully. "I'm not one to hold grudges, especially for something as daft as this. Come on, let's go to Honeydukes!"  
Malia nodded slowly, not completely convinced.

"Don't bottle things up, okay, Nat?" said Malia as they walked. "It's not healthy."

Natalia smiled distantly. "Don't worry, Malia, I won't."

* * *

"So how was your date with Louise?" said Lily playfully as she grinned at Sirius.

"It was fine," said Sirius nonchalantly. "I found Remus and Peter having a date, which was mildly disturbing," he added with a chuckle.

"For the last bloody time, we weren't going out!" protested Remus. "We were just two friends enjoying a cup of tea together!"

"In Madam Puddifoot's?" James snorted. "Very convincing."

"Oh please," Natalia cut in, "Remus and Peter were spying with Malia and I to dig up dirt that we could use against Sirius. However, Leona caught sight of the photos we took and ran off sobbing. Then Sirius screamed at us and took off after her."

"Well, you shouldn't have hurt her feelings," Sirius snapped, his good mood gone. "It's all your fault."

"Oh, stop being such a goddamn hypocrite!" Natalia glared, "You weren't so considerate about our feelings when you let me and Malia's panties rain in the Great Hall."

"So... nice weather we're having, eh?" said Malia pleasantly as she lifted her gaze to the ceiling. The sky was clear with no clouds to be seen, despite the wet snowfall they had earlier that day.  
Lily frowned.  
"What happened today, exactly?" she asked.  
Natalia abruptly stood up.  
"I'm going to go to the common room," she said brightly.  
"To do homework?" asked Lily expectantly.  
"Of course not," Natalia grinned, "What kind of silly idea is that? Come on, Sirius, let's go see if we can't hex some Slytherins on our way there."  
Sirius gave her a surly look, but James nudged him, and he reluctantly got up. "Fine," he said, shrugging as he rolled his eyes.  
"Nat! N.E. exams are coming up in only a matter of months!" Lily scolded. "If you don't do your homework now - Where do you think you're going? Don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you -" Lily got up from her seat and followed Natalia and Sirius.  
James shook his head. "Women..."  
"Did she lecture you during Hogsmeade as well?" Remus laughed.  
"No," James grinned. "But I tell you, I had a romantic setting for our Hogsmeade date. I surprised her with a trip to the Shrieking Shack, where we had a romantic picnic and -"  
"The _Shrieking Shack_?" gasped Malia. "You took your girlfriend to a haunted house? James, no offense or anything, but you don't know the first thing about being romantic," she laughed. She stopped laughing when she saw that James, Remus and Peter had amused looks on their faces.  
"What?" she asked.  
James shrugged.  
"Nothing," he replied, deciding not to tell her that the only reason why the Shrieking Shack was haunted was because Remus was there every month in his werewolf form, shrieking at the top of his lungs.

"And then, if you don't get enough N.E.W.T.s, you won't get a good job and - Nat, are you paying attention to me?" Lily asked, looking irritated. While she had been talking, Natalia's attention had turned from her to something behind her. Natalia sniffed the air, while Lily looked at her, annoyed. Sirius raised his eyebrow at the girl.  
"Nat, what are you doing?" he asked, snorting slightly, despite him vowing to stay mad at the girl until she apologized.  
"Does anyone smell..." Natalia said quietly, eagerly smelling the air. "Pumpkin pies... and strawberries?"  
Everyone looked at her dumbly.  
"No," said Lily, giving Natalia a strange look. "Why would we? We're on the third floor. We're nowhere near the kitchens or the Great Hall."  
"But," Natalia protested. "I swear I smell something like pumpkin pies..."  
"Nat, if this is some sort of cheap trick to change the conversation or something..." Lily began, somewhat irritated at the fact that Natalia always managed to avoid her lecturing, "it's not going to work! Oh, hello Leona," she said pleasantly when a dark-haired girl walked by. She nodded in acknowledgement before giving Sirius a light kiss on the cheek.  
"Hello, Sirius," she said cheerfully. Sirius grinned at her. Natalia frowned.  
'I swear!" Natalia said, desperately. "I smell pumpkin pies and strawberries! Pumpkin pies and strawberries! Doesn't anyone else smell it?" Leona gave her a scornful look, obviously having not forgotten that afternoon's events.  
"I'll... see you around," she said, shooting Natalia hard look. But before she walked away, she walked up and whispered something into Sirius' ear. He smiled and nodded, and Leona winked and walked off. Sirius turned back around and focused his attention onto Natalia again.  
"I don't smell any pumpkins," he said, "You're a complete idiot." His comment wasn't even sarcastic, bumping into Leona had caused his irritation with Natalia to skyrocket again. He himself had smelled the scent of hazelnut and vanilla, but he wasn't about to admit that.  
"But -' Natalia was starting to get hysterical. "I do! I smell them - or rather, did," she added, sniffing the air again. Lily put her hands on her hips, looking thoroughly riled up.  
"Nat, stop it! If you didn't get the grades you should have been getting, I wouldn't give you this lecture!" she said, her emerald eyes flashing. "Just because you're faking about this pumpkin pie business -"  
"I'm not faking!" cried Natalia. "I _did_ smell it!"  
"What's the big deal, anyway?" snorted Sirius, "it's just a smell." He realized at once how hypocritical his words were, but ignored himself.  
"Can we get to the common room now, please?" he continued. "Before Lynx has another hallucination and has to get her nose checked."  
Natalia gave him a stunned look. Sirius saw that it was the exact same look she had given him at Hogsmeade, when he had first unexpectedly snapped at her. He felt his stomach churn uncomfortably, and dismissed the feeling as being hungry, seeing as Natalia dragged him off before dinner ended.  
_She's selfish, that's what_, he thought angrily. _She's nothing like Leona at all._  
Lily caught him glaring angrily at Natalia's backside, and she frowned to herself. She had a bad feeling about all this.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**A/N: **Hello, all, I'm back! I hope you've all read the new notice I posted up on Ch.1 - it's pretty important. Very, very sorry to all of you who couldn't get a reply to your review - I promise I'll be doing a mass-reply chapter sometime soon. Enjoy!

**CHAPTER TWELVE:**

**Goner**

"He should be any moment now," she whispered to herself, keeping herself hidden in the shadows. She applied a layer of lipgloss and checked her appearance in the compact mirror. She seemed rather self-conscious of herself as she carefully sniffed her clothing and frowned to herself. Taking out a small bottle of perfume, she gave herself a couple more whiffs of the fragrance.

She waited confidently, a broad smile on her lips.

"Tonight's the night," she murmured, bright grey eyes glittering eccentrically.

* * *

"I - just because Leona is such a blasted crybaby, it's not my fault! No one _told_ her to go look at the pictures, just because she was being nosy doesn't mean -"

"She wasn't nosy! Don't call her nosy!"  
They were rowing again - Sirius had brought it up first thing after he, Natalia and Lily had entered the common room. So far,

Sirius seemed to have the upper hand, Natalia was having some trouble shouting comebacks at him. Everyone else had returned to the common room, and all were disgruntled to see that nobody was willing to let up.

"Why - why are you defending her so much? You - I thought you don't even like her that much!"

"How would you know? I'll have you know, I had a wonderful time with her in Hogsmeade today and that might've changed my feelings about her -"

"I've never seen you take such an interest in her before! You used to complain about how clingy she was and how she'd just pop out of nowhere and -"

"Lynx, if you're not going to apologize, there's no sense talking to you," Sirius said shortly, before storming out of the common room.

Natalia glared after him in disbelief. "You brought it up, you bloody git!" she shouted after him.

"Nat, don't you think..." Lily said softly. Natalia turned her head to Lily, her glare dropping instantly. Lily thought she looked tired, as if the bickering at taken a lot out of her.

"What is it?"

"Don't you think... don't you think you should apologize?" Lily suggested. Natalia looked at her incredulously.

"What?"

"I mean, think about it; it wasn't very nice for you to take those pictures, Leona was obviously embarrassed about it and well, you may have taken the revenge thing a bit too far this time..."

"But -"

"Lily's right, Lynx," said James, looking almost reluctant to admit it. "I mean, Leona had nothing to do with it, yeah? And she felt really bad about it, and you just jumped on Sirius for nothing..."

Natalia's mouth dropped. "But he yelled at me!"

"You yelled back," said Remus reasonably.

"Malia!" Natalia turned to her for support. Malia shrunk under her gaze.

"I - I already went to Leona and apologized to her," she said. "I felt really bad, so, er..." she drifted off slowly, feeling guilty for not telling Natalia earlier. "But - but Leona was really nice about it,"

Malia added encouragingly. "She didn't hold any grudges after I apologized."

"Just - just apologize to Sirius, for starters," said Lily. "I know Leona isn't very fond of you, even before all this, but just make amends to Sirius, for friendship's sake. Right, Peter?"

Peter nodded, "It's getting tiresome to stay in the same room as you two," he squeaked out. Natalia frowned at him. "I mean, but not when you're not rowing," he added quickly. "It's not annoying when you're not rowing! Because when you aren't - I meant that -" Remus lay a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder, and Peter shut his mouth.

Natalia seemed to struggle with herself, but her shoulders finally relaxed and her face held a yielding expression.

"Fine, I'll apologize," she muttered, "But I've got to go find him first. Merlin knows where he's stormed off to." She walked out of the common room in search of Sirius.

"Well, glad that that's all sorted out," said James cheerfully, "Anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?"

Lily rolled her eyes at him, but took the cards that were dealt to her.

* * *

"Sirius..." whispered Leona, a sudden, deep, sultry voice that rattled Sirius in a way he had never felt before. He was lost in her bright grey eyes, not noticing that she had wrapped her arms around his neck until pressed her lips against his, massaging his lips gently. He returned the kiss feverishly, pushing her against the wall, wanting more, needing more, like his life depended on it.

Not wanting to continue his argument with Natalia was not the only reason why he stormed out. He had glanced at the clock and found that it was almost eleven o'clock. Before Leona had left, she had whispered in his ear to meet him near the dungeons at eleven. Just in spite of Natalia, Sirius had planned to go. And now, here he was, lost in Leona's charm and exhilarating scent.

Suddenly, at the high point of their fervent kisses, when their tongues were wrestling for domination in their hot, moist mouths, Leona broke the kiss. She smiled at him teasingly, shaking her head and laughing when Sirius whined in frustration.

"Be mine, Sirius," she said in that same, intoxicating voice, a voice that drove him crazy with longing and desire.

There was not even a choice, in his mind, and Sirius nodded eagerly and proceeded to her lips again, but Leona stopped him, raising her head to beside his ear.

"Promise me, Sirius," she said, breathing softly into his ear. "Promise me, please."

Adoration and love for her was already pounding against his ears, but when she blew delicately into his ear, he felt his heart thumping out of his ribcage.

"I promise," he murmured, before sending hot kisses up her neck, making her gasp. There was no doubt in his mind; he would always love Leona, always her, just her, always. Everything about her was perfect - from her hair, to her face, to her smile, her scent, her laugh, and the way she moaned when he found her sensitive spot...

She ran her fingers through his dark hair, enticing him more as he ran his hands up and down her back. She purred into his ear as he vehemently kissed her lips and held her small body up from her quaking knees. He could feel the first button coming undone from his shirt as Leona pressed her cool hand against his chest, causing a hitch in his breath at the coldness of her hands.

He heard footsteps coming, but he didn't care; all he needed to hear was the sound of Leona's exhilarating voice, the way she breathed, the way she said his name...

"Hello - is anyone there?" someone called. Gasping, Leona hurriedly disconnected herself from Sirius' lips and brushed her hair rapidly. She buttoned up Sirius' shirt and combed it flat, winking at his dazed face. She slipped away into the darkness before Sirius had a chance to react.

"Hello-o, is anyone - Sirius? What are you doing here?" the voice asked, sounding surprised. Sirius turned around and came face to face with Natalia. She was looking at him curiously.

"I - I was with Leona," he said breathlessly. "We were - I was - and she left..." he let out a low whimper as he huddled on the floor. Taken back, Natalia stared at him.

"Sirius, are you all right?" she asked, touching him softly by the shoulder, sounding worried. Once he felt her touch, he lashed out and stood tall, glaring at her.

_Nobody but Leona can touch me... _

"No, I'm not alright," he thundered. "You - you sent Leona away! She never liked you, and you sent her away! Because of you, I can't see her anymore, I can't hear her voice, I can't feel her skin, and it's all your fault! You're the reason why we were never together before, you scared her from loving me freely! Well no more," he snarled, taking no note of Natalia's completely blank face, "Leona and I will love each other, because I'll protect her from the likes of _you_. And you can't do anything about it."

Natalia blinked a couple of times.

"Erm, then I'm happy for you," she said, giving him an unsure look. "Um, I was just going to the common room... you coming?" she asked him hesitantly.

"You're not going to stop Leona and me from loving each other?" accused Sirius dangerously, his gray eyes storming with suspicion.

"Sure thing, Black," Natalia said, sounding cheerful. "Now come on. You might want to straighten your shirt a bit and comb your hair some more." She had a glassy look in her eyes that immediately vanished when Sirius blinked, and nodded consentingly at her.

* * *

"What's up, Padfoot?" asked James. After around a week of the worshipping of Leona, everyone had forced James to start asking Sirius where he had misplaced his logic.

_"He's been drooling about her all week!" blazed Natalia, who shared all of Sirius' classes and was thoroughly drained from his 'I wish Leona were here' whines.  
_

_"Obsessive compulsive, if you ask me," stated Lily, who had been snapped at when she lightly commented that Louise had looked slightly tired one morning.  
_

_"You're his best mate, do something about him!" said Natalia, looking at James pleadingly. Exchanging glances with Peter and Remus, he eventually relented. He really needed to consider getting simpler friends. Werewolves and Cupid-struck were not usually found in your average batch of mates._

Sirius didn't answer his question, but sighed, a dreamy look that seemed forever imprinted in his eyes. He said, "I - I can't stop thinking about her, Prongs, s-she's perfect," he turned to face his friend, his face so full of feverish love that it scared the trousers off of James. Figuratively, of course. "Do you know what love is, James?" he said softly. "Because I do. It's the most wondrous feeling in the world... to be, in _her_ presence."

James tried to give Sirius what he thought was an understanding look. It looked more like he was between constipation and inhaling dung.

"That's... nice," he said carefully, with his understanding look. "Where is Leona now?"

"In the girls' dorms," breathed Sirius, as though the dorms were a holy shrine, "doing her Potions essay."

"Ah," nodded James, the look of yearning on Sirius' face was seriously starting to creep him out, "so... how's your classes lately?"

"As dark as a Lethifold when she's not around, but as bright and perfect as a newborn unicorn when she is," came the reply. James could feel his left eye twitching from the sappiness of his words.

"Wow... so, there's another Quidditch game coming up in three weeks," said James, eager to change the subject. "Who do you think is going to win, Ravenclaw or Slytherin?"

"Leona finds snakes fascinating," answered Sirius. "She says they are so peculiar and interesting, like giant Flobberworms with a paint job."

"Uh... huh..." James slowly inched away from Sirius, before bolting for the portrait hole. Luckily, Sirius didn't seem to notice (he was too busy thinking about Leona.) For some reason, as James escaped, the comparison Leona made with snakes made him think of something Natalia would say. James told himself he was going delusional.

When James dashed out of the common room, everyone looked at him expectantly.

"Well?" they chimed in all at once.

"He's a goner," he said, shuddering. "Never a more lovesick swine. This was worse than when my great-uncle was trying to woo a Muggle with a basket of black plums fifteen years ago. Turned out to be exploding balls used in Muggle warfare. It took out Mum's entire side of the family," he shook his head sadly.

**Chapter End Notes: **Aah, poor Nat. It'll get better soon, though, I promise. Ugh, I hate Leona. Even though I'm the one who created her XD

Love you guys!

ArcanusRose


	13. Chapter Thirteen

_Leona... Leona... Leona..._  
"Sirius!"  
Sirius blinked, and looked down at his parchment. Leona's name had been written no less than fifty times on his runes assignment. An elaborated heart was drawn beside one of the names. His eyes glazed over as he thought of her sweet face.  
_Her eyes... her mouth... her smile..._  
"Sirius, listen up!" a second interruption snapped him back. He turned around irritably to see Natalia, looking no less amused than he was.  
"What are you doing to your parchment?" she asked, her face unsmiling. Sirius' eyes darted to his parchment. He gave a sigh, his eyes glazed over.  
"I think I love her," he said to no one in particular. "I can't stop thinking about her."  
"That, is called 'obsession'," Natalia said grimly. "it's not love; it's something that gets people sent to mental asylums for."  
"What do you know?" Sirius suddenly stood up, causing his desk to fall noisily over. All the other students were suddenly hushed. Natalia didn't bat an eye.  
"I love her!" he raged when Natalia didn't reply. "And you can't stop that! I'd do anything for her, die her for even!"  
"Oh believe me, Sirius," Natalia replied, sarcasm dripping from her every word. "you don't need to die for her. You're already half dead _from_ her."  
His reaction was instant - Sirius' fist collided with Natalia's jaw as he shouted a hex at her. He sent her hurdling into the opposite wall. Dust gathered around as the students huddled together, their eyes wide open.  
"I don't want to hear you talking about Leona like that again," Sirius said dangerously, his gray eyes flaring. "You understand?"  
Natalia slowly removed herself from the wall; fully aware it was luck that she didn't break her spinal cord. Her grey eyes bore into Sirius' with an emotion Sirius could not place.  
"You needn't worry," she said in an icy tone. "You won't." She flung her bookbag over her shoulder in one swift motion and stalked out of the Ancient Runes classroom. Professor Cauden looked shocked and stunned, as were the rest of the students. Never, in their dreams, could they have imagined such a scene.  
"B-back to your seats, class," Professor Cauden said when he finally found his voice, "continue working quietly." He made a mental note to dock off fifty points from Gryffindor for violence, preferably when Sirius was calmer.  
Obediently, the class sat down, including Sirius, and quiet scribbles filled the silent room. Occasionally, eyes would peek up from their work and glance at the door, but no one reappeared at the door.

It had been two months to the day Sirius hit Natalia, but no improvements had been made. Natalia completely disregarded Sirius' existence, treating him no better than a Slytherin. James, Lily, and the others could only watch helplessly, torn between Natalia's complete bitterness towards their friend, and Sirius' continual worshipping of Leona.  
It had seemed that Natalia had exploded. Every bit of long-forgotten quarrels had crept from the back of her mind, to the only thing she could think about. Resentment and rage burst into her eyes whenever she saw Sirius, and cold replies came from her lips whenever he was mentioned. There seemed to be no way Natalia was forgiving Sirius this time, not after years of pretending nothing was ever wrong.  
"Nat," Malia had sighed one day. "Shouldn't you try and solve problems? Why do you pretend to forget old grudges?"  
"I don't," said Natalia, dangerously calm as she heard Sirius and Leona giggled in the background. "I just wish I do."  
Pippi Longstocking had not stepped foot into the DADA classroom for quite some time.

"Eye of newt, Natalia," said Florence Gibbons quietly, reading from the textbook, "And that should be the end of the potion."  
"Thank Merlin," sighed Natalia. "This was the longest potion we've ever done."  
"Well, considering it's almost May, the potions should get harder," murmured Florence, nodding approvingly as the potion began turning a pale green, just as it was supposed to. She had been slightly skeptical of working with Natalia. Her previous partner, Leona, had paired up with Sirius Black for the longest time. However, she soon realized that Natalia was friendly and worked well when her mind was focused, and they became regular partners.  
Natalia smiled cheerfully at Florence, "At this rate," she said, "I might even scrape up a good mark for Potions!" She grinned and Florence couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. _She's so carefree_, she thought wistfully to herself, _I bet she hasn't a worry in the world, smiling like that. I wish I had her life_. Florence frowned at herself - she hated it when she whined like that, even in her thoughts. She didn't know Natalia very well, but it wasn't fair to blame her just because Natalia probably had a better childhood than her. _Her mum and dad must love her a lot_, she thought reflectively.  
Natalia and Florence bottled up the potion and delivered it to Professor Slughorn's desk. Unfortunately, Leona Park and Sirius Black were handing in their potion at the same time.  
"Two potions at the same time? How wonderful!" Professor Slughorn said enthusiastically as he inspected both flasks. Natalia had a set look on her face as she determinedly avoided looking at the boy standing beside her. Though the bruise on her face had healed one month before, this was not a normal row between Sirius and Natalia.  
"Aha, Miss Lynx and Miss Gibbons have been doing well, especially Natalia!" said Professor Slughorn, "I have full confidence that Natalia will do well in her Potions exams! As for Miss Park and Mr. Black, I could not have expected anything less. Perfect scores, both pairs! Good work." Natalia nodded and she and Florence made their way back to their cauldrons to clean up. Professor Slughorn, however, held Leona back.  
"Leona, it's been such a while since you've visited the Potions classroom, eh?" he chuckled, "finally finished that extra credit you've been working on since September? The classroom has such a lovely fragrance every time you worked in there. I forget that smell..." he frowned, trying to remember, "What was it, wine, I suppose?"  
"Oh - oh of course, Professor!" said Leona, looking wide-eyed. "Yeah, I finished a long time ago, and er - thank you for letting me work there! And -' the bell rang, "I've got to go! Bye, Professor!" She pulled Sirius out the door before Slughorn could reply.  
"That was odd," said Natalia as she waved goodbye to Florence and joined Remus and Peter. Her arms were full of Potions notes that Florence recommended that she copy down for future reference.  
"Leona _is_ odd," shrugged Peter. "S'no different." The three of them turned the corner and immediately gagged when they saw Black and Park snogging in the corridors. Remus and Peter looked at each other and made silent, disgusted faces. However, Natalia was never one to keep her thoughts to herself.  
"Do you two _mind_?" she snarled, "This is a corridor. People walk through it. Snogging, quite frankly, is not walking."  
"Screw off, Lynx," snapped Leona, recovering well. "It's none of your business."  
"It's damn well my business if I can't walk through a bloody corridor without losing my lunch over it!" Natalia retorted.  
"Natalia, let's just go," Remus said, gently tugging her sleeve. "Hello there, Padfoot," he smiled weakly. Sirius had stopped hanging around them ever since Leona and he had been officially going out; officially being that the two of them snogged openly in the Great Hall almost two months ago. Needless to say, Shara and her gang were slightly more than unhappy with the scene.  
"Belt it, Lupin," came the curt reply, before he connected lips with Leona again. By then, Natalia looked as though she had completely lost her nerve.  
"That's it!" she shouted, throwing her arms up, pages of parchment flying into the air, "What the bloody hell did Remus ever do to you? You can't treat your best mate like that! What the bloody hell is your problem? And Park, before I forget to say this, I think you are a bloody bit-"  
"Don't talk about Leona like that!"  
"_Stupefy!_"  
Sirius hit the floor before he could slam his fist into Natalia's face again. Remus and Peter gawked at the wand in Natalia's hand. Remus and Peter heard the rustling of parchment as Natalia's notes reached the floor. _Where the hell did that come from..._  
"Merlin, she's fast," Remus muttered to himself.  
"Don't bloody tell me what to do, Black," Natalia said quietly.  
"Oh my God! Sirius!" screamed Leona, before whipping out her wand, "You'll pay for this, Lynx..."  
Seconds later, her wand clattered to the floor and a peculiar frog took her place. The frog snorted its pink snout and dashed away, skinny chicken feet clicking against the stone floor.  
"_Enervate_," Natalia muttered to the fallen boy. She turned back to her comrades, who were staring at her, their jaws open. "Let's go back to the common room," she said calmly, picking up her notes. "I'm sure Malia, Lily and James are already there."

Malia and Remus had been going out now, ever since three weeks ago when Remus had accidentally blurted it out during a tutor lesson. Malia had blushed furiously, before timidly bobbing her head up and down as a reply. It came as no surprise to the others, who had already gotten used to thinking Remus and Malia as a couple.

_"Good going there, Moony," James winked, "Now Peter and I will have to fight to be best man."  
"You'll invite me to your wedding, right, Remus?" said Natalia, "Because youll need someone to eat your wedding cake for you!"  
"Everyone eats the wedding cake!" protested Peter, "I want some too!"  
"We're not getting married," said Malia, blushing, "We're just - you know - going out... I mean, it doesn't mean anything..."  
"Right, it's far too early," agreed Remus.  
"Same old, same old," Lily laughed at Malia and Remus' equally matched, blushing faces._

As happy as Malia was with Remus, the comfort she felt while around him, the easygoing, non-judging attitude he had, she still felt...  
It was the same feeling she had felt before Natalia told her about her family. The same nagging, tugging feeling that she got when she felt something wasn't right. It had been going on, especially today, when Remus' hair became suddenly longer and shaggier than before. He protested that it was just a bad hair day, but Malia remained skeptical.  
"Lily," said Malia after classes when they met up in the common room, "I've been having troubles... with Remus..."  
"Is he being a prat?" Lily laughed.  
"No, no he isn't," Malia said hastily, "It's just... you and James share everything together, don't you? I mean, both of you are going out and all."  
"Well, we haven't shared _everything_..." James said suggestively, grinning at Lily. Lily punched him in the arm.  
"Of course, if there's something wrong, we tell each other," said Lily placidly, ignoring James' grunts of pain.  
"Hence all the quarrels," James said, leaning back on the couch. He draped an arm over Lily's shoulder, which Lily ignored as well. Something told her that Malia had something more in mind than quarreling.  
"What's wrong, Malia?" she asked. Malia hesitated, before responding.  
"I - I think... I think Remus is hiding something from me," she admitted, "But I don't know what. But... whatever it is, I think it has something to do with his odd behavior the last couple of days."  
"What?" James asked, before waving it off, "Psh. Yeah right. Remus is just being... Remus." He laughed, glancing out the near-full moon, "It's nothing. Forget about it. You're overreacting. I mean, come on, this is Remus..."  
"And you know something about it," Malia accused James, "Don't deny it, you're blabbering's just proved my point."  
James immediately stopped talking. After an awkward moment, he said weakly, "It's really nothing, just - just trust us."  
"Lily."  
Lily bit her lip. "I -"  
"Ahoy there, mates!" Natalia's voice sang into the common room, "What're we all talking about?"  
"We're... talking about Remus, actually."  
"Remus?" Natalia frowned, "and you're not talking about me? I am insulted!" she said mockingly as she grinned. Her grin faded as James, Lily and Malia were all wearing dead serious looks. "What's going on? What about Remus?"  
"What is about me?" Remus came into the room, looking confused. Lily and James rose from their seats.  
"Come on, let's go to dinner," Lily and James said to Natalia and Peter, "We'll leave them to talk."  
"What? What's going on? What do they have to talk about?" Natalia asked as she was pushed out the portrait hole, "What's going on?"  
"I'll tell you later!" hissed Lily, "just get out!" The four of them disappeared, leaving the new couple alone.  
Remus scratched the back of his neck, uncomfortable with the awkward silence. "So what's going on? What do you need to talk to me about?"  
"I... I..."  
_Out with it! Get to the point!_  
"I think you're hiding something from me, Remus!" Malia blurted out, "I don't know what it is, but I know you're hiding something. We've only been going out for three weeks, but - but we should still be open with each other. I know I'm open with you."  
Remus remained silent, so she continued.  
"It's - it's not healthy to hide things from each other, so if you have something, you should talk about it. I mean, your behavior's been weird the last few days, and your hair has been completely out of control. Remus, are you going through some sort of breakdown? Is it because of the exams? Talk to me, Remus!" she begged when Remus continued to be silent.  
Remus bit his lip, before smiling at Malia. "I think you're overreacting. Let's just go to dinner and forget about this." And before Malia could respond, he waved at her and left the common room.  
Malia stood by herself, looking defeated on the outside. But inside, she was far from it. She was not about to be deterred. One way or another, she was going to find out what Remus was trying to hide. She was not going to be a pushover.  
_Maybe not today, but I'll try again tomorrow_, she thought, _and I'll continue to find out until Remus tells me. I'll give him hell for it, I swear_.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**A/N: **Here's the chapter we've all been waiting for... Will Nat find out about the love potion? Sorry, sorry, sorry for the terrible quality of writing and late updates the past few weeks! Finals have been hectic!

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN:**

**Revealed**

_"Good Merlin," she laughed, her wand pointing playfully at him, "Why do you insist on sneaking up on me when you know you'll never succeed?"  
"It's not my fault you've got awesome reflexes," he protested, holding his arms up in defeat. "But one day, I swear I'll be able to do it," he added, looking determined.  
"Is that a challenge?" her eyes sparkled mischievously.  
"But of course," he smirked. She slowly lowered her wand.  
"Then I believe you're off to a horrible start," she grinned, pocketing her wand, "Come on, I'm hungry, let's just go get James and Lily and find someplace for dinner." She turned around and began to walk away.  
He grinned; he seized his chance and jumped. To his amazement, she didn't even turn around and soon, both of them were on the ground.  
"Oi, why didn't you fight back?" he frowned, staring down at the back of her head. "It's not fair if you just let me win." He slowly stood and helped her up.  
She shrugged, grinning. "Just so I could do this," she said, before leaning over and kissing him softly on the lips. He looked at her, stunned, and she laughed and took his hand.  
"Your reflexes are very poor, Mr. Black," she said. "Far poorer than a constipating dragon trapped in cotton floss."_

Sirius opened his eyes and shook his head. These dreams had been getting more frequent as the days rolled by, and he had no idea why. He was convinced that the girl in his dreams was Leona, but in his dreams, she was much more charming, cheerful, and quick-witted. He groaned and fell back against his pillow, regretting that he ate that bruised apple Leona had given him that night. She hadn't known it was bruised, but the hopeful look she had on her face when she had given it to him was unbearable.  
_Bruised apple..._  
How could Sirius be so blind? He was obviously thinking the girl in his dreams was more charming, because he hadn't appreciated Leona enough. She does so much for him, and all he could do was regret? He loved her with all his heart and soul, and he felt that Leona wasn't getting enough of that. No, he would do something for her that would proclaim his love for her, so that she'd never forget it. He lay back on his pillow, dreaming instead, of what he would do for her.

* * *

"Oi, Padfoot?" came a quiet voice from the bed beside him. Aggravated that someone had disturbed his thoughts of Leona, Sirius sat up and gave the person a harsh look.

"What?" he snarled. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"

James frowned.

"I heard you groaning and sitting up, so I assumed you were awake," said James. "Anyway, can we talk? I'm - I'm kind of worried about something."

Sirius looked annoyed, but motioned James to continue.

"Sirius," James said. "I'm worried about this whole in-love-with-Leona business. It's not healthy; you don't really eat your meals unless Leona feeds them to you..."

"It was her request," Sirius defended. "And quite frankly, she's right. Food _does_ taste ten times better when she spoons them into my mouth!"

James decided not to comment on the absolute pathetic-ness of _that_ issue. "Well, yeah..." he said, "but I don't want to lose my best mate over some girl, yeah? It's been kind of lonely these past two months without you. Especially since lately..." he hesitated, glancing at the empty bed beside Peter's.

"If you can't accept Leona, then I don't see the point of us being mates," Sirius snapped. "I love Leona, and if you can't handle that, then goodnight! I have nothing more to say to you." He lay back on the bed, motionless.

Normally, at this cold snub, James would have been pissed off. But something wasn't right; Sirius wasn't acting like himself. Was it family problems again, and Sirius was hiding it by making excuses of loving Leona? Could that be it?

James sighed to himself. "G'night, Padfoot," he muttered quietly, before pulling over the curtains of his four-poster bed.

"Line 102: I... will not... imper... sonate... a student and... trick... the... author...ities," Natalia said aloud as she wrote, "Line 103: I will... not... imper... sonate a... stu...dent... and..."

"For God's sake, Lynx, shut your mouth!" snapped Professor McGonagall, completely losing her cool as a vein throbbed in her temple. "You've been doing that for the past half hour!"

"I thought we could write lines together, and - oh, would you look at that, I messed up my sentence, exclaimed Natalia, frowning. "Looks like I'll have to start over. Line 103: I will not..."

"Just - just finish writing the sentence and get out of here!" said Professor McGonagall heatedly, throwing her arms up in defeat. Natalia grinned and quickly scribbled down the sentence in three seconds, before picking up her bookbag and winking at the deputy headmistress.

"Good night, Professor McGonagall," she said, laughing. "Cheers!" And she bounded out of the office, ten minutes earlier than she was supposed to.

Minerva McGonagall took a deep breath and relished the silence. That was the last time she was _ever_ going to give Natalia Lynx a writing lines detention again.

_I'm running out of detention types to give her_, she thought with good humor, in spite of herself, _Good thing it's her sixth year._

"Oi, Lily!" Natalia bounded into the girls' dorm, grinning, "What are you doing?"

Lily raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Homework, Natalia, what else would I be doing?"

Natalia shrugged and bounced on her bed, cocking her head to one side. After a while, she let out a loud sigh. "Lily, I'm bored," she whined, "Let's do something fun."

"Like what?"

"I dunno..." said Natalia, grinning mischievously, "Why don't we... have a pillow fight?" She tossed Lily a pillow while she grabbed her own.

"What? No, I've got homework..." Lily said halfheartedly, staring at her parchment of Arithmancy homework that she didn't really want to do.

"What, scared you'll be pummeled by Nat Lynx?" Natalia mocked, bouncing up and down on her bed, "Too scared to lose?"

"No... I'm scared that you'll cry once I beat you!" Lily laughed as she got up from her chair and ran around the girls' dorm, chasing after Natalia. "Where do you think you're going? Hiding from unavoidable defeat?" she said as she caught up to Natalia and began beating her with the pillow. "Give it up, Lynx!"

"_Never_!" Natalia laughed hysterically, trying to defend herself. It was chaotic, both girls were running after each other, jumping from bed to bed, ruining the other girls' nicely made beds. It was until Natalia tripped and landed on a bedside table that they calmed down. Perfume bottles shattered as they hit the floor, causing a nice, white mess in the dormitory.

"Oh, brilliant," Lily sighed as she dropped her pillow. "Look at what we've down. Leona is going to kill us when she realizes we've broken all her perfume bottles."

"Not our fault they're made of glass," Natalia retorted. "She ought to take better care of them. Lily..." she suddenly said, looking around, "Do you smell something?"

"Yes," Lily sniffed the air, "It smells like... newly mown grass, and... lemons."

"What? I don't smell that," protested Natalia, "It smells like... pumpkin pie and strawberries...Food?" she said aloud, looking around the room. However, only Lily and Natalia were in the room.

"These smells must be coming from the perfume bottles," said Lily, bending over to sniff the liquid mess, "Yes... the smell gets stronger and -" Lily sprung back, looking shocked.

"What is it, Lily? You look like you've just seen a ghost," said Natalia, looking concerned.

"I - I just thought something... it's really odd... about Leona..." Lily stammered, "Oh God, I hope I never think that way again..."

"Think about what, Lily?" asked Natalia impatiently.

"Wait a second," Lily frowned. "Both of us have smelled different things, and it's obviously coming from the perfume... my thoughts..." she went towards the perfume bottles again, but this time slower, and more careful.

"What's going on?" said Natalia, looking exasperated. "What do you know that you're not telling me?" She folded her arms impatiently as she waited for Lily to answer.

Lily was silent for a moment, before letting out a gasp. "_L'eau d'Amour_... that's... Nat! This is Amortentia!" she shouted, holding a large fragment of broken glass.

"It's what?" Natalia said, looking dumbfounded.

"Amortentia! Leona has been charming Sirius under Love Potion! How could we have missed it?" Lily said, turning back to examine the glass. "I mean, it's so _obvious_! I'm so stupid, Leona is brilliant at Potions, she'd have no problem with - Nat?" she whirled around when she heard the door slam.

She looked around the room, and found that she was alone. Natalia had already gone to find Leona and Sirius. _And in the meantime_, Lily grimaced as she began rummaging through Leona's drawers, _I'm going to McGonagall with this_. Lily shuddered when she found more bottles of the same substance. She didn't need to take a lot, one bottle were more than enough to get Montmorency expelled. She noticed that some bottles had a stronger scent than others, as if Leona had slowly built the strength of the Amortentia in order to make it seem more realistic.  
_She won't get away with this._

_Damn it! Where the hell are they?_ Natalia thought angrily as she ran around the school, searching for that elusive and fraud couple. Finally, out of breath and unsuccessful, she found herself back on the seventh floor, staring at the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. She frowned and began pacing about, trying to think of where they may be.

_They're not in the Great Hall, they're not in the kitchens, the library, or anywhere! I even checked the potions classroom, for Merlin's sake! Where could they be? I need to know where they are so I can tell Sirius that Leona is a lying, manipulative bi... Where did that door come from?_

She stopped pacing about when she noticed a door in the wall that she had never seen before. She walked towards it, looking tentatively. Maybe it was dangerous, it could kill her once she entered, maybe she'd go into some sort of dark dimension and never be seen again... it was better if she just left it alone, and –

Natalia snorted to herself and turned the knob. She found herself in a room of luxury, with animal fur carpets lain all over the floor. It sickened her when she saw a dead bear staring up at her with lifeless eyes. Dark red curtains draped the windows, and a roaring fireplace was located in a corner of the huge room. Right in the center of the room, was a long, red couch, and there, snogging right in the middle, were her targets.

"I love you so much, Leona," breathed Sirius between kisses, as she lay below him, her hair a mess and her shirt halfway undone. It took a while for Natalia to be able to speak. She had to remind herself that this wasn't the real Sirius. Well, he was, but he wasn't really Sirius in the way that he was... oh, never mind.

"Well, isn't this a sight to behold," said Natalia dryly, abruptly ending the romantic mood. "Two lovers snogging on a couch, I can hardly wait until Park's belly starts to bulge, or haven't you already gone that far?"

"Lynx!" Leona screamed. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm here on business," said Natalia cheerfully. "I'm conducting a research paper. Quite an interesting topic, really, I'm sure you'd be interested, Leona. _The Effects of Love Potion_, I'm planning to call it. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" She walked towards the couple, her smile looking dangerously thin. Her bright grey eyes sparkled with a hazardous emotion, and her entire body radiated with fury and rage.

"What - what are you talking about?" demanded Leona. "I wouldn't do anything like that! Sirius loves me for me, don't you?"

"Of course I do," said Sirius, wrapping his arms protectively around Leona. "I love her."

"Oh, that's lovely," said Natalia, within a foot's range from them. "I'm so happy for you. Especially you, Leona, why, I've got a bit of a present for you." She smiled sweetly, before delivering her gift of a punch to Leona's face.

"HOW DARE YOU HARM LEO-mmph!"

"And that's an antidote, _Black_," Natalia spat, continuing to shove the bottle of clear liquid into his mouth. "You can thank me later. Found it in Slughorn's office while looking for you. Neatly labeled too, didn't think he'd supply the classroom with 'Amortentia Antidote'. Honestly!" And without another glance at either of them, she left the room.

Sirius' mind was spinning as he fell to the floor, furrowing his brow and trying to make sense of the situation. When he finally looked up, he found Leona looking at him with a horrified expression on her face.

He gave her a hard glare.

"So this is your game, is it?" he snarled, shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts. "A love potion? What kind of sick, twisted, little -"

"I love you!" she screamed. "I tried to make you see it, but when you didn't, I had no choice!"


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**A/N**: Very, very sorry for this late, late, late update! I'm also going to warn you beforehand that the space between updates will likely increase, now that I'm in high school. GATE program, IPP program, IB program and high school life in general takes up quite a bit of time. SO, apologies ahead of time! Enjoy this long-awaited chapter!

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN:**

**When the Prankster Becomes the Pranked (Well, Kinda…)**

"I love you!" Leona screamed, "I tried to make you see it, but when you didn't, I had no choice!"

Sirius should have run, he should have bolted for the door the moment he regained control of his brain, but he didn't. He remained rooted to the spot as Leona let out a cry of anguish.

"Ever since first-year, when I first saw you," said Leona quietly, sitting on the couch. She placed her hands on her lap, as though she were about to be scolded. "I knew I loved you. And I knew that when I first saw you smile at me during the Sorting Feast in our first-year, I knew I couldn't live without you. But then I saw _her_," she hissed, speaking as if 'she' was a hideous beast, "and I knew I would never have you."

"Her?" said Sirius weakly, "Who's her?"

"Don't talk as if you don't know, dumbass!" Leona screamed, suddenly wild, "Her! It was all her fault! If it hadn't been for her, you'd be mine! Mine! I love you more than she could ever!"

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" said Sirius, backing away two steps. Part of him would very much like to punch the daylights out of her (even though he wasn't one who usually hit girls), and another part of him wanted to hear her confession. In the end, the latter won.

Leona rubbed her jaw tenderly, sore and bruised from where Natalia had punched her minutes before. She seemed to ignore what Sirius had said. "So I started to follow her, learn how she behaved," she continued softly, "I wanted to know everything she did. I even," she said with a twisted smile, "Managed to get her look. But her smile, her damned smile!" she shrieked, again, throwing Sirius off guard. Again.

She was a raving mad lunatic.

"The smile took me years! Years!" she said hysterically, "God! Do you know how many times I stood over her bed at night, wanting to strangle her with my bare arms? Do you know? But no..." she said, her voice dropping into a whisper, "That would bring my dear Sirius sorrow, and I couldn't do that to him, oh no... especially, when he finally asked me out. It seemed as though all my work had paid off... except..."

Sirius had officially classified the girl as a nutcase. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, "Who's this _girl_ you keep talking about?"

Leona locked eyes with him; blue against gray.

"Don't try and tell me you don't know," she whispered, "Of course you know who I'm talking about. Tell me, Sirius, who do I look like?"

Sirius' answer was instant. "Nat." The resemblance between her and Leona was uncanny, except for a few deliberate features. He had always assumed it was coicidental genes, but with Leona's question... "But... you couldn't have used Polyjuice Potion... you don't look _exactly_ like her..."

Leona laughed a hollow laugh.

"Oh, that'd be too easy... everyone would know," she said, "But I was gifted. I was gifted so I'd never have to use Polyjuice Potion... of anything of that kind, for that matter." She stood up, a twisted smile on her face. Slowly, her face began changing shape, and her hair took on a different color.  
Sirius couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He was looking at the real Leona Park for the first time. And she looked nothing like herself.

* * *

"Professor McGonagall's _what?_"

"I'm sorry, Lily, but I'm afraid she is," squeaked Professor Flitwick apologetically, "Apparently Professor Dumbledore had something to talk to her about in his office. Now, whatever you need to talk about, I'm sure it can wait until tomorrow. You'd better be off on your Head Duties now." With a farewell wave, he skittered away.

"But..." said Lily, watching Professor Flitwick, "It _can't_ wait." Her emerald eyes flashed with determination as she marched up into the direction that she knew was Professor Dumbledore's office. She found herself staring at an ugly gargoyle that was blocking her way.

_Password. I need a password... How am I supposed to know what the blooming password is?_ Lily thought incredulously herself, glaring at the gargoyle.

"Headmaster?" she guessed, "Gryffindor?"

The gargoyle remained stationary.

"Phoenix," said Lily, recalling a rumor that Dumbledore owned such a bird, "Albus? God, I don't have time for this!" She kicked the gargoyle uselessly, wincing when she unwisely stubbed her toe. "Let me in! _Reducto!_"

The spell bounced off the gargoyle and Lily had to duck in order to prevent herself from being blasted away. She was still kneeled on the floor when the walls slowly split open.

"My, my, visitors at this time of night?" said Dumbledore pleasantly, "Minerva was just leaving."

Professor McGonagall stood at his right, looking appropriately puzzled.

"Professor!" Lily leapt to her feet, grasping both of them by the hands, "You've got to come with me! Leona Park, she - she's got Sirius drugged with Love Potion! Here!" she thrust a bottle of perfume at the two professors. Dumbledore's face went grave as he carefully inspected the perfume bottle.

"You are sure this came from Miss Park's possession?" asked Dumbledore quietly.

Lily nodded furiously. "I swear to God! She's got bottles and bottles of these, each with different concentration levels! She's been drugging Sirius to the point where he's completely lost his sanity!"  
Professor McGonagall's face went hard and her fists were clenched. "Show us the way, Miss Evans," she said, "Show us where Park is!"

Almost immediately, Lily's face went pale. She had no idea where the two were. "Erm, I don't really know..."

"I know where they are," said Natalia suddenly, popping beside Lily.

Lily nearly fell over from fright. "Where did you come from?" she demanded, trying to catch her breath, "What are you doing here?"

"Questions later, Miss Evans," said Dumbledore gently, "Now, Natalia, you say you know where Leona Park is...?"

(A/N: Little does Lily know, that her own son would stub his toe trying to get to the office of his headmaster over ten years later... I love subtle irony.)

* * *

"You would have never noticed me if I looked like this, would you?" said Leona, smiling like a senile feline. Sirius could only stand there, gaped-mouth.

Leona's black, shiny hair had turned into thin strands of light brown that hung limply a few inches below her ears. Her face was thin and long, with large, bulging brown eyes and an unhealthy complexion. Blemishes and pimples littered across her face, and there was an unsightly mole right below her left eye.

"How... how did you..."

Leona smiled placidly. "I'm a Metamorphmagus," she admitted, "I can change my appearance to anything I please. Of course, I had to change what Lynx looked like," she reverted back to her previous, faux faade, "for obvious reasons."

"But... I don't like Nat..." protested Sirius, starting to get dizzy from this entire situation. Leona's look was one of fury.

"To hell you don't!" she shrieked, "You've never seen the way you look at her like I have! It kills me, Sirius, it kills me! I wasn't good enough for you, I wasn't, so I had to do more. Slughorn worships my potion-making skills, he didn't even question when I wanted to borrow his classroom for extra work! Amortentia was the key; the only way I could ensure you were mine! But - but _she_ had to get in the way! Sirius, am I not pretty enough for you?" she cried, "I can change! I can change!" A mirror image of Lily Evans stood in her place.

"Shit! I'm getting out of here!" Sirius shouted, finally bolting for the door.

"No!" Leona shouted, her almond-shaped, green eyes shining with tears, "Come back! I love you! Sirius, I need you! I'll - I'll even control you if I have to, as long as you'll love me! _Imperio!_" The spell narrowly missed him as she ran after Sirius. But something made her stop halfway to the door.

"I think," said Albus Dumbledore quietly, stepping into the room, "This has gone far enough."

"Oh my God... is that me?" said Lily, looking stunned, staring at Leona, "What the..."

"Minerva," said Dumbledore, turning to the stony woman, whose face had taken on a disgusted expression, "I believe you can take it from here. I must call the parents of Leona and inform them of her doings."

"You can't!" said Leona, recovering from her shock. She threw her head back and laughed wildly.

"They died a year ago! I'm an orphan! Who are you going to call this time? I have no parents!"

"Nat!" Sirius found a familiar dark-haired girl with blue eyes, "There you are!"

"No!" Leona gnashed her teeth, "Not her!"

Dumbledore turned around. "In that case, I will call the orphanage of where you have been staying during the holidays. Minerva," he nodded at her, and Professor McGonagall regained her composure. She glared at Leona and in seconds, had her bound by ropes.

"We will take Sirius to the Hospital Wing, goodness knows what he's been through," she said authoritatively, "As for you," she turned to Leona, "I can guarantee your expulsion from this school, Miss Park." She observed the large, swollen bruise on Leona's cheek, and looked at Sirius.

"I can see how angry you must have been with Leona, Sirius, but I never knew you were one to hit girls," she said, looking slightly disapproving.

Sirius stared in shock. "What? No - I didn't - I mean, I wanted to, but -"

"I did, Professor," said Natalia evenly as she stepped forward, "But it felt good, after what she's done to Sirius for the past seven months."

"Oh, Nat," Lily sighed, "Why?"

"Unfortunately, Lynx," said McGonagall, looking at Park with the greatest dislike, "I cannot go by your word, as I was not there to witness it. Therefore, there's no proof that you did it, and nothing I can do about it."

Natalia widened her eyes in pleasant surprise, but Leona screeched from her ropes.

"_WHAT?_ She bloody punched me! Damn you, Lynx!" she glared at Natalia, "I swear, I'll get you for this! You took Sirius away from me! Just watch yourself, because when I find you, I'm going to slit your throat and -"

She fell suddenly unconscious.

"Nat!" Lily gasped.

Natalia uncurled her fist and stared at the unconscious Leona. "Bad reflex," she said, shrugging.

"You'd better get some ice on that hand, Natalia," said McGonagall coolly, "And you're lucky I didn't see anything, otherwise you'd be in deep trouble as well. You and Lily may accompany Mr. Black to the Hospital Wing while I take care of Leona."

Natalia stared at her in disbelief, before nodding her head slowly. Professor McGonagall began walking away.

"Wait!" Sirius suddenly called. McGonagall turned around, with Leona hovering gently in the air.

"What is it?" she asked, sounding impatient.

"Can I punch her too?" asked Sirius hopefully.

Natalia disguised her snort as a sudden cough.

"She's not a punching bag!" Lily snapped, "Let's just go to the Hospital Wing!" She grabbed Sirius' arm and dragged him down the corridor, with Natalia following behind, a grin on her face.  
It was nice to have him back.

* * *

"He's going to be okay, isn't he?" asked Malia as Sirius rose from the hospital bed, "I mean, he's not going to like, die, right?" Two days later, everyone cluttered around his bed, waiting for Madam Pomfrey's diagnosis.

"Goodness, no," said Madam Pomfrey, "He has just been under the effects of Amortentia for a very long time, and it will take some time for him to recover. Normally, I would keep him in the Hospital Wing until he fully healed, but it is too near exams. He oughtn't succumb to his old symptoms, unless he's exposed to the scent of Amortentia. But that could be anything."

"Well, whatever you smelled, Padfoot, you're avoiding it like a flatulent troll," said James, laughing, "It's really good to have you back to normal."

"As touching as this reunion is," said Madam Pomfrey, gently cutting in, "I have patients. The Amortentia has not been completely flushed out of Sirius' system, so you be careful now," she directed her gaze to Sirius, "Don't go falling for anymore of _those_ kinds of girls."

James snorted as Madam Pomfrey ushered them all out of the Hospital Wing.

Natalia grinned at Sirius. "Good to have you back as well, mate," she said, laughing.

"Thanks," he said weakly, "I'm - I'm sorry again for punching you, Nat."

"Not a problem," she said, scrutinizing him carefully, "Just... you've got something on your face there..."

"What, where?"

"Oh, let me get it off," she grinned, pulling her arm back. By the time Sirius saw that her fist was clenched and it was hurtling towards his face, it was too late. He landed on the ground, with Natalia grinning at him and the others in stunned shock.

"Now we're even," she winked as Sirius groaned in pain. "Oh, stop being such a wimp," she scolded, "I doubt that's even going to bruise your face."

It was wise that Sirius didn't comment on this.

"So... what happened while I was out?" said Sirius as Remus pulled him up and they made their way back to the common room, "What did I miss?"

"You missed Slug Club," said Lily grimly, "It was an Easter party. Professor Slughorn wanted us to go around the grounds and find some ridiculously colored eggs."

"They were chocolate!" James added, grinning, "And I Summoned them and ate them all. Which was against the rules, by the way," he remarked thoughtfully.

"Aside from that, you missed one Quidditch game, two full moons and several near-death accidents because me," said Natalia plainly, grinning at Remus, who was demanding James as to why he didn't share any of the chocolate eggs with him.

Sirius immediately looked shocked. "Natalia! Malia, she -"

"Don't worry, don't worry, I got her under control," said Malia, rolling her eyes, "Geez, no need to get so uptight."

"_What?_"

"Yeah," said Remus sheepishly as he put his arm around Malia's shoulder, "She Stunned James and everything."

Sirius stared at Malia, then at Remus, before turning to his friends in utter confusion.

"See what happens when you're too busy snogging a mentally unstable Metamorphmagus?" Natalia laughed as she punched Sirius lightly on the shoulder.

"But -"

"I know!" said James excitedly, "Slytherin won that Quidditch game! Gryffindor still has a chance!"

Lily laughed. "I don't think that's what Sirius was getting at, James."

James shrugged. "Just thought he had to know, anyhow," he said, grinning.

**Chapter End Notes:** In case you're wondering whatever happens to Leona, she's been diagnosed with a severe mental disorder. Professor Dumbledore managed to talk St. Mungo's into accepting her and putting her on high security, special treatment ward instead of sending her to a normal Muggle hospital. This was because Leona was a Metamorphmagus, and could easily escape from the Muggle hospital, where she could very well bring harm to others and to herself.  
You know... maybe.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**A/N: **Wow – two chapters in two days! Anyway, this chapter is pretty lousy – I wrote it at about ten o'clock last night and only did one round of editing this morning. Didn't even get to send it to my betareader. Soz, everyone. Hopefully it's not as bad as I think it is.

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN:**

**Aftermath of the Psychotic Fangirl's Wrath**

"Now that it's - it's almost the end of the year," said the DADA professor to his bored and inattentive class, "We should probably start - well, rnataliawing for your exams. And so, if you could all turn to page -"

The door suddenly slammed open, revealing a girl with blonde pigtails and a toothy grin on her face.

"G'day, mates!" she beamed, skipping into the classroom, "Pippi Longstocking is back in class and ready to learn whatever she needs to learn in Herbology! Professor, you're looking as handsome as ever, did you change your shaving cream?"

The class stared at her in amazement.

Richard Murray from the Gryffindor Quidditch team leaned back in his chair, a relieved grin on his face. "About time you showed up, Longstocking," he said, "Me and the mates were going to die of boredom here!"

"Hurrah, it's Pippi!" Pauline chirped, clapping her hands, "It's been awfully tiresome without you!"

"Boredom?" said Pippi, looking offended, "I am not entertainment! I'm here to learn just as much as you are! Now, Professor," she sat in her desk, an inquisitive look on her face, "Please, do go on about the art of croaking puppies, or whatever it is we talk about in Potions class."

From within their hiding place, Sirius and James high-fived. "Pippi Longstocking is back," James winked, "And I must say, she is as high-spirited as ever."

"Poor Professor Deboale," said Lily, frowning, "He looks awful."

"Looks almost as awful as my mother," Sirius sniggered.

Malia laughed as she watched Natalia. "Why is Nat doing this again?" she asked.

"To disrupt classes and traumatize Professor Deboale's life," said Remus, chuckling.

"Moony, two Galleons that Professor Deboale's leaving before the end of the year," James grinned, sticking out his hand. Remus smiled and shook it.

"Deal."

"You're betting on Deboale's leaving? Was this your plan all along?" Lily shrieked, "To cause a professor to resign?"

"Well... we kind of thought of it back in January..." admitted James weakly.

"But then it kind of became a game, you know?" protested Peter, "I mean, Nat hasn't a clue that we're betting on her..."

"You're all so immature," Lily muttered, crossing her arms, "I don't even know why I'm here anyway."

"Marco!" Pippi sang when Professor Deboale had just regained his composure. That didn't last very long.

"Polo!" the rest of the class chanted back. They sniggered loudly.

"P-Please! Miss Longstocking, if you would -"

"Marco!" Simon called, grinning widely.

"Polo!"

"Mr. Taylor, please don't -"

"Marco!" came another call from the other side of the classroom.

"That's why," Sirius grinned as he looked through the window, finding the poor professor going mad trying to quiet his class and teach them something, for once.

"Professor!" Pippi screamed suddenly, "There are scorpions growing out of your earlobes!" 

Ever since he was let out of the Hospital Wing on Tuesday, Sirius had been behaving normally. He seemed to be back to his old self; from jinxing Slytherins, to laughing and joking with his friends, to passing with flying colors on his classes. Whatever he smelled in the Amortentia must not have been around anymore.

It was Wednesday night, a few hours after dinner, that the gang decided to make a seventh-year study session. Actually, it was more of Lily's idea...

"I've recently done a survey," said Natalia, stretching her arms, "and 100 out of 100 people say that studying is bad for your health."

"It doesn't count when 'Studying is bad for your health' is the only choice you give them," muttered Lily as she took notes.

Sirius snorted. "Nat's an idiot," he grinned. Natalia stuck her tongue out at him.

"Fine, Mr. Smarty," she said, taking a large book from him and setting it on her lap, "Tell me this: When was Anne Boleyn, a witch, publicly executed?"

"May 19, 1536," said Sirius smugly, "I just read that part."

"Ooh... good try," said Natalia merrily, "It was May 2, 1536! Haha, who's the idiot now?" Remus and Malia laughed as Natalia stuck her tongue and mocked Sirius. Lily rolled her eyes but smiled.

"What? That can't be right!" Sirius leaned over and checked the book. He snorted, "Natalia! You really are an idiot! That was the day Anne Boleyn was arrested! Merlin, you're thick."

"Oh, shut up," Natalia retorted, "Let me ask you more questions so I can squander your brain cells."

"As if," he grinned, leaning closer, "I already know all that stuff." There was a familiar scent in her hair.

"Move over! Merlin, I can't breathe with all that male perfume on!" Natalia shoved him over, pinching her nose, "It smells something awful!" She gave Sirius a wary gaze when he said nothing, but stared at her with eyes as glazed as a donut. "Sirius? What's wrong with you?"

This question caught the attention of the rest of their study group. Simultaneously, they all turned their heads.

Sirius stared at Natalia. "I - I -" he choked out, "I love you."

Natalia's reaction was as smooth and graceful as Nearly Headless Nick's execution.

"_WHAT?_" Natalia shouted, jumping up and tripping over the couch, "What the hell's wrong with you?"

"I - I can't stop thinking about you," said Sirius earnestly, "I love you, Leona."

Lily's eyes immediately flashed with understanding. "It's the Amortentia," she said, walking over, "He must've smelled something. And - he thinks you're Leona, Nat."

"What? I'm not Leona!" Natalia looked outraged, taking the comment as a personal insult.

"Of course you are," said Sirius, smiling like a doofus, "And that's why I lo-" His gray eyes suddenly lost its glazed look and snapped back to reality. He stared at Natalia as if she were a troll.  
Natalia gave him a steely glare.

"Gah! Ack! It wasn't my fault!" Sirius said, looking horrified, "I swear!"

"For your sake, Black," said Natalia, shaking her head, "You'd better."

"Well, whatever it was, at least we know what to expect," Lily sighed, "It'll last at most a week or two. If it doesn't, we'll just go see Pomfrey again."

_You've never seen the way you look at her like I have! You've never seen the way you look at her like I have! You've never... you've never... _

"You alright there, mate?" said James, looking at him worriedly. Sirius blinked his eyes a couple of times and grinned tiredly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured, "Must be the Love Potion again."

"Obviously!" Natalia spat. She was at the foot of the stairs, with her wand held out and a barrier of dead canaries at her feet. "You killed my shield!"

"I - I'm sorry!" protested Sirius, "It's not my fault, honestly! I'm a drugged man!"

Peter frowned at the graveyard of birds at his feet. "Why'd you use canaries?"

"Because I thought he couldn't kill a flock of cute birds," Natalia muttered as she used her wand to vanish them, "I was wrong."

"Alright, from now on, Sirius and Nat are to stay a minimum of ten feet away from each other," said Lily, "Because this always seems to happen when the two of them are close together."

"Ooh," said Malia, giggling, "Maybe Sirius likes Nat's shampoo? I happen to think it smells quite nice too."

"What? No bloody way," said Sirius, glaring at Natalia, "she smells like a perspiring dragon!"

"Oh Sirius," grinned Natalia, raising her wand, "I never knew you fancied that scent. Here, have a bucket of it!" Seconds later, Sirius smelled of a most awful smell.

"God, Lynx!" Remus clutched his nose, "Not all of us fancy that smell!" He cast the Bubble-Head Charm on himself, before the others followed suit.

Sirius was confused. He couldn't stop thinking about what Leona had said about him and Natalia. It wasn't true... Leona was mad. She had to be, she just had to be. He didn't like Natalia in that way, she was just his mate. But still...

"I love you, Leona!" whined the lovestruck boy. 

"Leona loves you as well," said Natalia tiredly, rolling her eyes. She had long since given up on trying to snap Sirius back to his senses. Honestly, it had only been a week, and Lily said that it might take two. 

"The bloke's taking one of the most sacred words in the English language and overuses it like Lily's wand polish," she muttered, "bloody hell." She had gone to see Madam Pomfrey, the woman assured that it was normal and the sudden lapses would go away as soon as the Love Potion had been totally flushed out of his system. Oddly enough, it only happened to Natalia, and not to Lily or Malia.

"It's probably because you look like Leona," said Lily wisely, "or rather, she looks like you. Don't forget, she's a Metamorphmagus."

And so, Natalia alone was forced to deal with Sirius' lapses of devoted longing and unnatural love. One of the first few times, he had tried to snog her, which had freaked her out immensely and sent Sirius flying out a window.

"I would die for you," said Sirius feverishly, "I will do anything you ask."

"I know you will, Sirius," said Natalia, angry with Leona for making Sirius so sickening pathetic. Usually these moments lasted only about a minute or two, where Sirius would shake out of his thoughts and Natalia would give him a very hard whacking.

"You are such a git," she said, punching Sirius in the arm when he finally came out of it, "of all girls, you had to go out with the one who tries to seduce you with Amortentia!"

"I didn't know!" protested Sirius, "How many times have I told you, I'm sorry!"

"Drunk monkey," said Natalia, "Don't think I haven't forgotten the time you tried to snog me during Charms!"

"I haven't forgotten that either," muttered Sirius, painfully remembering being thrust out the third floor window. He would've died, had Professor Flitwick not saved him at the last second before Sirius smashed to the ground. Natalia had lost twenty points and gained a detention, something she wasn't entirely happy about.

Natalia sighed and flopped on the couch, just as Lily and James came back from Head Duties. "When is this going to end?" she asked.

"Sirius tried to do you again, did he?" said James, looking sympathetic. Natalia nodded, as though she were a worn soldier returning from battle. Lily sighed and shook her head sadly.

"Oi, it's not my fault!"

"Give it a few more days," said Lily encouragingly, "He'll probably be better in a few days."

"For his sake," said Natalia, turning to Lily seriously, "He'd better."

"Aw, but I _lurve_ you, Nat," said Sirius. He was grinning mockingly and it was obvious that he was in full control of his mind, but Natalia wasn't looking at him. Shocked, she jumped and ran over to Lily.

"See?" she hissed, "It's getting worse! He's calling _my_ name now!" She then heard the barking laughter of Sirius, and stared back at him. "You git!"

"Don't call the person who loves you a git," said Sirius, still laughing, "Merlin, you should have seen your face..." Natalia turned to James, who grinned sheepishly.

"It was pretty funny, the way your face looked," he admitted reluctantly, looking as if he wanted to laugh, but hardly dared with Natalia's wand in front of his face.

_**A Few Hours Later...**_

"Head Duties are so boring," complained James as he and Lily walked around the school, "I mean, doesn't Filch do that already?"

"Oh, stop whining," said Lily, "It's our responsibility, and we might as well do it right. Where are the torches around here, I can't see a dratted thing! _Lumos!_"

"Aww, Lily doesn't like the dark, does she?" said James mischievously, walking closer beside her, "because I happen to think it's... _exciting_."

"Oh, do you now?" a voice purred in the background. Someone emerged from the shadows and stepped into Lily's light, revealing herself.

"L-Lillis," Lily gasped, put off by her dark violet eyeshadow, "What are you doing here? It's - it's after curfew!"

"So, _James_," said Lillis, licking her lips and ignoring Lily, "You like the dark, don't you?" Her purple-based makeup glittered with suggestiveness and mischief.

"I'll - I'll give you detention!" sputtered Lily, "You've got to go back to your common room!"

Lillis turned around to face Lily. Lily tried not to be too intimidated by her tough look and scorn.

"What's wrong, Evans? Angry? Jealous?" she smirked, "I thought you detested him."

"Actually," said Lily indignantly, putting her hands on her hips, "We're going out!"

Lillis raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed. "Really? Well," she faced James again, winking, "That just makes me more interested. Tell me, Potter, have you ever kissed a girl with a tongue ring?"

James was stunned. "I - er -"

Lillis leaned in, her mouth to his ear. "I bet Evans doesn't have one. She's too... good for one." James could smell the scent of cigarettes from her breath.

"Stop it! He - he doesn't fancy you!" said Lily, her face red. Her hands were shaking with fury, and it showed from the effects of her trembling wand light.

"How would you know, Evans? Don't you think I could... satisfy him more? I mean, why would the Gryffindor _Quidditch Captain_ have any interest in some little redheaded goody-two-shoes? Hm, Evans?"

"I - I - I'll show you!" Lily marched over towards James and shoved Lillis to one side. She cupped James face and pressed her lips onto his passionately. James' eyes were opened wide as he was experiencing the most fervent snog of his life. Lily stopped kissing James and glared at Lillis triumphantly.

"I - I'm with her," said James, slightly out of breath as he pointed slowly to Lily.

Lillis rolled her eyes and sneered. "Whatever. I never really liked him that much anyway." She tossed back her hair and walked back into the dark, until Lily couldn't see her anymore.

Lily smacked James hard on the shoulder. "What's wrong with you?" she hissed, "You're such a git!"  
James moaned from the pain.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't know what to do."

Lily's eyes softened. "Oh, come on," she said, taking his arm gently, "We've got Head Duties, Oh-Great-Quidditch-Captain. Turns out you were more of a catch than I thought," she chuckled.  
James smiled weakly.

"You - you know, I can sort of see what Lillis was talking about, I guess," Lily laughed slightly as she walked, "I mean, what do you see in me, anyway, right? I'm just a prissy girl obsessed with studying and following the rules. I'm pretty sure I irritate a lot of people."

"What? No! No you don't!" said James suddenly, coming back to life, "You're not - well... you're kind of obsessed with studying... erm, and I guess you like to follow rules, and some people get annoyed at you, I suppose..."

Lily smacked him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped, "You're just agreeing with me!" She gave him a harsh glare.

"Well, I dunno," said James, shrugging, "I guess - I guess that's what I like about you, is all. You're loyal to your friends, and you always try to treat things fairly, and you're concerned about people. Oh, and you're awfully pretty," he added, grinning.

"Pig," Lily muttered, though her face was bright red.

"Aw, but you know you love me," James winked at her.

Lily was still. "I... I might," she said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. James looked at her, looking surprised.

"What?" he said.

"_What_, what?" said Lily impatiently, "I didn't say anything! God, you're going mad! We've - we've got Head Duties! Honestly, do I have to do everything by myself?" She stalked off quickly, leaving James behind, looking at her thoughtfully.

"Lily...?"

**Chapter End Notes: **Aww, James and Lily! How cute… I really hope this chapter and the one before aren't too crappy. I'm just taking advantage of the last homework-free long weekend to update. Very sorry I haven't been replying to all the reviews – all I can say is that while I'm too busy to reply to them, reading each of them makes me really, really happy! Love you guys SO much!


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